By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

After essentially melting from high to low on Monday, the cotton market was right back higher Tuesday. Its strength was more or less derived from a stable Dow Jones and a weaker U.S. dollar, but also what appears to be a category 4 hurricane churning up the Gulf. As of this writing, Hurricane Delta will be a major hurricane and is on track to make landfall this weekend, slightly west of New Orleans. This would place much of the U.S. Delta cotton in jeopardy, as well as the portions of the Southeast. Its appearance has not only caused cotton to perk up but crude oil as well.

Looking ahead for the week, the market will closely track Hurricane Delta to its eventual landing site. On Thursday, USDA will report on its latest export sales data. Last week showed stronger sales, but weaker shipments.

Then, on Friday, USDA will update its latest supply and demand numbers. Last month saw the government slash the crop a million bales to 17.0 million. However, since that time, there have been several weather events which have resulted in adversely affecting the quantity and quality of the 2020 cotton crop.

For Tuesday, December Cotton closed at 66.86 cents, up 0.83 cent, March closed at 67.72 cents, up 0.80 cent and December 2021 cotton finished at 66.72 cents, 0.55 cent higher. Estimated volume was 26.969 contracts.