By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent
On the eve of the trade talks with China, the cotton market traded both sides of unchanged, before settling fractionally higher. Earlier Tuesday there were concerns the market might sell-off on the news the U.S. Justice Department was going to prosecute the CFO of Huawei. She was arrested in Canada a few months ago and extradited to the U.S. Perhaps in a reflection of turnaround Tuesday, the market finished up-on-the-day to counteract Monday’s lower close.
Supposedly, USDA will publish its weekly sales and exports report this Thursday. Talk is the agency may report between 1.25 million to 1.50 million bales. Subscribers know the government shutdown stop the flow of marketing information for five consecutive weeks. So, this week should be interesting.
To reiterate Wednesday and Thursday will also involve the trade talks between the U.S. and China. The trade war has entered its eighth month, causing the economic losses on both sides to be substantial.
March cotton settled at 74.15 cents, up 0.30 cent, July was 76.77 cents, up 0.13 cent and December was at 74.23 cents, down 0.05 cent. Tuesday’s estimated volume was 31,165 contracts.