NEW YORK - ICE cotton futures fell on Monday, after hurricane Ida weakened into a tropical storm, alleviating concerns over crop damage in cotton regions.

Cotton contracts for December fell 0.53 cent, or 0.6% to 94.31 cents per lb, by 1:30 p.m. EDT.

Ida, which could bring heavy flooding in large parts of the southeast United States, weakened into a tropical storm.

Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Georgia said that since Ida missed the regions of Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley, the natural fiber broke lower.

“Ida is coming up to the Delta and there’s isn’t much cotton planted in the Delta anymore, particularly this year with corn and soybeans at high prices during the winter,” Brown added.

Market participants will monitor a weekly crop progress report from the United States Department of Agriculture due later in the day.

“We do not expect Ida to do major damage to the Mid-southern and Southeastern crops,” Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at Tennessee-based Rose Commodity Group, said in a note.

“With cotton futures hovering in the mid-90s, brief forays to or through the psychological important dollar level are not out of the question, but we would be very surprised to see futures linger at that level or much higher.”

Total futures market volume fell by 2,803 to 14,561 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 736 to 268,789 contracts in the previous session.