By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

Cotton ended its last Monday in 2020 on a strong note. The market traded up in sympathy with the news that President Trump had signed the COVID-19 relief package over the weekend. That action also encouraged other markets higher as well.

The market will trade an abbreviated week with the New Year’s holiday being observed this Friday. However, the market will see its weekly export-sales report at their normal release time of 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. The last few weeks has seen some stunning sales of 400,000-plus bales. This week’s business will be timed to the lowest trade of the U.S. dollar last week. Cotton prices are on -track for a seventh positive monthly result in a row and are near 20-month highs.

Monday afternoon the CFTC will offer some insight as to the “make-up” of the market participants. For months, speculators have been inordinately net long in the market. To that end, some traders fear whether that group will book some profits as 2020’s calendar will soon run out.

Monday, March cotton closed at 76.35 cents, up 0.15 cent, July settled at 77.53 cents, up 0.12 cent and December 2021 ended at 73.80 cents, up 0.10 cent; estimated volume was 8,533 contracts.