By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market took a steep spill early Monday as conflicting news about the U.S./China trade deal unnerved traders. To that point, there was some rumored talk President Donald Trump would indeed implement the last tier of trade sanctions this coming Sunday, Dec. 15, if there was no serious consensus for a trade deal.

On the other hand, some analysts were suggesting the president would not tack on these last grouping of tariffs as a goodwill gesture to speed up the talks. Thus, the market was taken down early, but was able to pare most of its losses into the close.

The market also awaits Monday afternoon’s Crop Progress report. In many locales picking is virtually through, thus Monday’s harvest percentage number may be in the 90s. Another report with market-moving possibilities will be Tuesday’s monthly supply-demand report from USDA.

Traders are anticipating another cut to the U.S. crop. If that is the case, the report will set the tone for the market for days to come. However this Thursday’s Weekly Export Sales and Shipments report will also play a price-moving role into the weekend. Thus, with a full slate of reports, trading is apt to be volatile and two-sided.

For Monday, March cotton settled at 65.38 cents, down .62 cent, July finished at 67.17 cents, off .34 cent, and December 2020 ended at 67.30 cents, down .34 cent. Monday’s estimated volume was 30,916 contracts.