By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

Influenced by preparations for Wednesday’s delivery, spot July closed with a triple-digit higher settlement, but new crop December barely managed to finish positive on the day. Besides Farmer fixation activities, there was obvious short covering from the speculative ranks, thus July left all other contracts in its wake. Tuesday marks the last opportunity for traders and producers to exit spot July or suffer delivery.

In other news, USDA will publish its latest crop condition data Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET. Most likely, it will show the 2020 crop is 100% planted, but some areas are showing stressful growing conditions. Of late, Texas has been hit with high winds and hailstorms, as well as hot and dry conditions.

In addition to the recent border dispute troubles brewing between China and India, China has now placed new restrictions on Australia. Relations between the two countries have been greatly strained ever since the emergence of the coronavirus. Virtually, all economic aspects, from trade to tourism, have suffered. Yet now, China is insisting Australia is a puppet of the U.S., and thus it deserves additional Chinese scorn. Interestingly, both India and Australia are major cotton exporters, with much of their business going to China.

July cotton closed at 62.52 cents, up 1.28 cents, December ended at 60.58 cents, up 0.02 cent and March settled at 59.85 cents, up 0.04 cent. Estimated volume was 20,679 contracts.