By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was moderately lower Tuesday amid a wobbly Dow and good harvest weather. The Dow Jones saw profit taking from its near 30,000 level spike Monday on the announcement of another vaccine development. Specifically, for cotton, much of the production belt is experiencing great harvest weather, although some producers say the crop is smaller. Nonetheless, the advance of harvest is adding weight to the general market.

The market is also awaiting Thursday’s export sales. Another strong showing of sales, in the face of the Northern Hemisphere harvesting efforts, would suggest some crops of some countries is faltering. To that point, if Pakistan emerges as a top buyer this week, the trade will begin to think its crop is in definite trouble.

Although the long-term trend for spot December has been up since its April COVID-19 low, it is slowly challenging its underlying support. The low side of its channel support is 69.19 cents, while its 50-day moving average is 68.1 cents6. With spot December’s delivery next Monday, the selling pressure may only intensify.

December cotton closed at 69.11 cents, down 0.46 cent, March settled at 71.30 cents, down 0.28 cent and December 2021 finished at 69.74 cents, down 0.14 cent. Estimated volume was 38,658 contracts.