By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market spent the day seesawing over the fulcrum of Friday’s settlement. The ranges were narrow, less than 1.00 cent, and the volume a near trickle. Traders have multiple concerns about the future direction of the market. That list includes planting intentions, end-of-the-quarter squaring, a rising U.S. dollar and souring U.S./Chinese relations.

The last USDA guess for 2021 acres was from the Ag Forum back in January. At that time, government tabulators indicated 12.00 million acres, fractionally off from 12.09 for the previous season. However, with stiff competition from other row crop commodities, some analysts and growers are expecting a greater sizable reduction.

There are concerns that Europe will experience another shutdown due to COVID-19. Already variants of the virus have pushed several countries towards full lockdown until after Easter. The loss of early spring retail shopping both in Europe and in the U.S. may potentially blunt demand for cotton apparel.

Monday, May cotton closed at 84.62 cents, down 0.06 cent, July settled at 85.61 cents, down 0.11 cent and December ended at 82.20 cents, down 0.31 cent; estimated volume was 19,245 contracts.