By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst
The cotton market gave up its early gains to settle slightly higher Tuesday. Overall, the market continues to wait on different influences before deciding which way its next glide. The next two potentially market-moving events are this Thursday’s weekly export sales and next week’s monthly supply-demand data. To the former, sales have been running strong of late and, to the latter, there remains hope USDA will finally cut the crop below the 17.000 million bales mark.
The U.S. dollar continues to bearishly unravel. Tuesday it made a new low for its move, as that market fears new government stimulus will ultimately dilute its buying power. Additionally, the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is also undermining dollar confidence. Some traders see the U.S. Dollar Index February 2018 low of 88 cents as the next likely downside target.
March Cotton closed at 72.19 cents, up 0.04 cent, July 2021 settled at 73.77 cents, up 0.02 cent and December 2021 ended at 71.00 cents, up 0.25 cent. Estimated volume was 23,996 contracts.