By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market finished sharply up Monday, as the Dow Jones and surging energy prices encouraged the buyers of all stripes. Over the weekend, Saudi Arabia raised the price of crude oil globally, causing the synthetic/natural fiber relationship to gyrate. The Dow jumped over 1% as economy-linked banks and less fears with the omicron variant rallied prices.

This week cotton will see fresh supply-demand numbers from USDA and new weekly exports-sales numbers. Last month the government helped the current U.S. crop some 300,000 bales, leaving exports unchanged, thus lowering domestic carryout. Exports-sales saw a very strong sales number (300,000) but a low-end shipment (71,000) amount. Logistically speaking, exports are being slowed by the global supply-chain crisis.

The Biden administration announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. That means U.S. athletes will be allowed to participate but no U.S. government will attend. This move had gained support from critics of China’s human rights record. According to the official White House release, the U.S. is taking this position based on China’s “ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and other human rights abuses.”

Monday, December settled at 112.01 cents, up 2.71 cents, March ended at 107.01 cents, up 2.81 cents and December 2022 ended at 90.07 cents, 2.32 cents higher; estimated volume was 21,698 contracts.