Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market repeated its action of last Friday by finishing limit-down today. The market was pressured by a collapsing Dow Jones and a very strong U.S. dollar. Of course, the weaker Dow reflects the poor psychology of the U.S. economy, while a stout dollar potentially undercuts future U.S. agricultural export prospects.    

This afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EDT, the CFTC will issue its weekly Commitments of Traders report. As of last count, the managed-money funds were 48,000 or so contracts net long. Of course, with the data gathered as of Tuesday's settlement, plus the limit-down move of today, those speculators may now be even less long.    

Monday, USDA will update the progress of the 2022 crop. At last count, the "bolls open" category stood at 59%, while the crop's condition was 33% good/excellent versus 35% two weeks prior.    

December Cotton ended 675 points lower for the week, over 2,067 points for the month, and for the first, it was down 11 points on the year.    

For Friday, December closed at 92.54, down 400; March 23 finished at 89.67, minus 400 points, and July 23 settled at 84.78, 400 lower. Today's estimated volume was 21,923 contracts.

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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