By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

Amid deliveries and with time running out, spot July cotton closed lower Monday. To date there have been some 300 deliveries. However, new crop December was higher based on deteriorating field conditions across West Texas and the hopes that Thursday’s planted acres data will be less than expected. To that end, the purported industry average guess stands at 13.17 million, compared to the March intentions numbers of 13.70 million acres.

December cotton did draw some support from a recovering Dow Jones. After trading 200 down on its Sunday night, the Dow sharply recovered (up 400) on the backs of Boeing and Apple. No doubt a rising stock market, to some degree, helped cotton improve.

Monday afternoon USDA will report on the condition of the 2020 Crop. Seemingly Texas is already in trouble, and with it having scant rain late week, and even less chances ahead in the seven-day average, the situation may yet worsen.

On July 10, USDA will publish its latest supply-demand numbers. One great concern within the cotton industry are the very large projected carryouts. As of the last recording, U.S. stock was projected at 8.0 million bales, while world carry was pegged at 104.50 million bales. In addition, as long as the overshadowing COVID-19 persists, the demand world may be subject to more curtailment.

July cotton closed at 59.62 cents, down 0.93 cent, December finished at 59.63 cents, up 0.13 cent, March finished at 60.29 cents, up 0.13 cent. Estimated volume was 16,252 contracts.