The cotton market closed sharply higher Tuesday as continued textile mill fixation-type buying kept a strong bid underneath the old crop trade. On the other side, unrelenting dry conditions are placing the Texas new crop in peril, thus December cotton posted fresh life-of-contract highs.

Weather-wise, the immediate forecast (one- to 5-day) has zero rain for West Texas. In fact, the Six- to 10-day forecast indicates well below normal chances for precipitation. The eight- to 14-day is less grim, as it indicates some possible rain for, but Texas remains dry.

USDA issued its weekly crop progress report Monday afternoon, which showed the 2020 U.S. crop was 7% planted as of April 10. That is higher than the previous week’s pace of 4% seeded. A year ago, the crop was 8% complete.

May cotton will enter its delivery on Monday, April 25. That means all participants wanting to avoid the perils of delivery must vacate their spot positions by the preceding Friday.

The market will be closed this Friday for Good Friday, but will resume normal trading hours on Sunday night.

Tuesday, May cotton settled at 138.51 cents, up 3.22 cents, July closed at 173.45 cents, up 4.00 cent and December finished at 120.03 cents, 2.41 cents higher; estimated volume was 60,298 contracts.