By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market continued to trade within an arm’s reach of the 70-cent mark. For two consecutive sessions the market had come within 1 cent of hurdling that all-important psychological level. Monday’s high was 69.45 cents and Tuesday’s top was 69.25 cents. It is interesting to see how the market’s deferred contract months have traded at or above the 70-cent mark. Some traders see that action as a bullish predictive sign for the market’s future into 2021.

As a quick reminder, Tuesday afternoon USDA will issue its holiday-delayed crop progress and condition report. However, any yield adversity stemming from Hurricane Delta will not likely be reflected in the numbers.

Despite USDA’s fractionally lowering the 2020 crop last Friday via its supply and demand report, the cotton market has been able to maintain its upward bias. This is attributable in part to the recent adverse weather events, such as Hurricanes Sally and Delta, potentially reducing yields, while at the same time China is briskly moving to open up its economy. Some traders view this moment in time as one of early short supply colliding with a pick-up in demand. Yet, how high or how low that perception possibly takes spot December remains to be seen.

For Tuesday, December cotton closed at 68.83 cents, up 0.46 cent, March closed at 69.64 cents, up 0.46 cent and December 2021 finished at 68.87 cents, up 0.49 cent. Estimated volume was 24,013 contracts.