By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst
Last Friday the Labor Department issued a mammoth jobs report, showing a single-month employment creation of nearly a million jobs. Expectations called for some 625,000 jobs to be created. With nearly 40% of the U.S. population at least having one COVID-19 shot, traders and analysts are seeing the economy come to life. However, there are other countries, such as India, which is just now seeing new daily highs with infection rates.
The Federal Reserve meets this week. It will decide any new changes to its monetary policy. Currently the yield on a 10-year note is right at 1.75%.
China announced it would use mechanical harvesters to gather a large portion of its Xinjiang crop this year instead of hand labor. China has been under tremendous global scrutiny for its alleged use of slave labor in its fields and factories.
Crude oil was sharply lower Monday, falling nearly 4%. Last week OPEC announced a gradual increase in production, where for some strange reason traders took it as positive development. However, having the week to think about it, and while still within the grip of the pandemic, their analysis turned bearish.
Monday, May Cotton closed at 77.88 cents, down 0.07 cent, July settled at 79.18 cents, down 0.09 cent and December ended at 77.87 cents, down 0.04 cent; estimated volume was 27,135 contracts.