TodayΆs market action was just opposite yesterday. Yesterday almost all the crop futures had a nice rebound while cotton suffered another loss. Today, all the other crop futures suffered losses while cotton futures closed with good gains.

However, even the nice close was well off the dayΆs highs, which were REALLY strong; 225 points between the dayΆs low and the dayΆs high!

I wish I could point to specific news behind the volatility, but there really isnΆt much to point to. If anything, the only “news” I saw was bearish, where some southern Plains agronomists were talking about the possibility some abandoned winter wheat might go to cotton instead IF there are some good rains between now and the end of the planting season to recharge the “dust” that was supposed to be lush green wheat by now.

Most likely the end-of-day sell off was tied to funds motivated to sell by very negative action in the outside markets. Gold, crude, the DJIA were all off sharply and the dollar index jumped sharply, which hurts export competitiveness.

Catch up sales still strongly advised, but nothing beyond that.