The cotton market finished measurably higher Tuesday despite the day’s volatility. The Dow spiked 900 points early, based on a supposed vaccine breakthrough using steroids, and the news President Donald Trump would propose a $1 trillion infrastructure package for the country. However, subsequently Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s cautionary tone on the economy proved bearish, causing many markets to retreat to near unchanged, and in some cases, even negative levels.

Yet, in the afternoon sessions, bullish heads prevailed, and many markets, including cotton, closed higher. Of course, it did help that Tuesday’s May retail sales data was dramatically strong, suggesting the re-opening of the U.S. economy is working.

Cotton is awaiting Thursday’s sales and exports numbers. Last week saw huge combined seasonal sales of nearly 600,000 bales. However, the market eschewed that bullish data as it did not like the fact those bales were primarily bought between two countries, China and Vietnam. A fear the market has is once South America gets its COVID-19 outbreak under control, its ports will become fully operational and with cheaper cotton, China is apt to cancel here to buy there.

Tuesday, July cotton settled at 60.07 cents, up 1.06 cents; December went out at 59.08 cents, plus .73 cent; and March ended at 59.54 cents, up .53 cent. Tuesday’s estimated volume was 25,119 contracts.