By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market held onto its triple-digit gains from Monday morning as traders continue to eye Tropical Storm Eta, as well as a bullishly surging Dow. Eta is expected to dump heavy amounts of rain across the Southeast at a time when farms are harvesting their cotton crops. Of course, the Dow is sharply higher based on superlative scores on certain vaccine trials.

As of this writing there has been no congratulatory message from Chinese President Xi to Joe Biden. However, we understand that lower level Chinese trade officials have contacted the Biden Campaign about revisiting the phase-one trade deal, whatever that means.

Be reminded, USDA will issue its crop progress numbers Monday afternoon and Tuesday USDA will update its supply-demand estimates. It is generally thought the government will lower the 2020 crop to 16.50 million bales and cut carryout to 6.60 million bales. Unfortunately, the reduction in carryout still leaves it the second highest stocks since 2007-08.

Monday, December Cotton closed at 70.00 cents, up 1.38 cents, March settled at 71.68 cents, up 1.53 cents and December 2021 finished at 69.93 cents, 1.26 cents higher. Estimated volume was 75,446 contracts traded.