By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

After an initial early morning price bump from rising crude oil and a surging Dow Jones, the cotton market finished in bearish territory.

After an initial early morning price bump from rising crude oil and a surging Dow Jones, the cotton market finished in bearish territory. Running in the background of cotton’s troubles is the unraveling of the U.S.-China relationship over COVID-19. Right now, both sides are merely vocalizing their displeasure with one another without any side taking bearish action.

Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT, USDA will issue it latest crop progress data. Yet the most key report to see will be NOAA’s drought monitor, which will be updated Thursday, May 21.

The CFTC reported last Friday managed money speculators bought in some 4,100 contracts on last week’s rally. Their action reduced their net short to 15,000 contracts.

July cotton closed at 57.80 cents, down 0.45 cent, December finished at 57.93 cents, down 0.24 cent, March ended at 58.73 cents, down 0.14 cent. Estimated volume was 20,767 contracts.