By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was higher Tuesday, albeit on low volume. Such has been a true characterization of the market ever since its new August high was established, that is one of slow volume and tight ranges. However, conventional wisdom would suggest cotton’s immediate fundamentals, that is a large crop, huge net long speculators and the forthcoming harvest, are stacking bearish.

Tropical Storm Nicholas is raining out over the U.S. Delta and looks to scoot across the Southeast. These are two cotton-producing regions that no longer want any sort of rainfall. Still, USDA has pushed the overall good-to-excellent rating of the national crop higher in its weekly crop condition report.

In other weather news, the six- to 10- and the eight- to 14-day forecast nearly mimic each other. They each call for above-normal temperatures for Texas across to the Southeast. However, Texas looks to have below-normal rainfall, while the Delta and the Southeast should see above-normal rainfall.

For Tuesday, December settled at 93.66 cents, up 0.85 cent, March ended at 92.83 cents, up 0.87 cent and December 2022 ended at 83.07 cents, 0.81 cent higher; estimated volume was 18,959 contracts.