Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market saw follow-through buying stemming from weather concerns and the possibility of heavier Indian imports.    

For this week, the rain opportunities for West Texas are nil, while the six-to 10-day outlook does offer slightly improved chances. Nonetheless, the effects of this year's La Nina are keeping trades on edge.    

Spot May will enter its delivery this Monday, April 25. That means that all traders and growers wishing to avoid the notice period must vacate their spot month positions by this Friday. Coming into Monday morning, open interest for May cotton was about 25,000 contracts. Thus, there is a fair amount of liquidation yet to be done.    

The U.S. dollar continues to surge higher. To some degree, it is a safe haven for investors, but also traders are aware the Fed is bent on hiking interest rates early next month. Monday, the Dollar Index will mark its fourth consecutive session above the par, or 100, mark.    

Crude oil prices were sharply higher Monday. There were reported production outages in Libya, which only added to the deepened concerns over tight global supply. In addition, the Ukraine-Russian war is dragging on with no end in sight. Supposedly, higher oil prices makes the production of synthetics costlier.    

Monday, May cotton settled at 144.74 cents, up 2.76 cents, July closed at 143.25 cents, up 2.54 cents and December finished at 123.47 cents, 0.99 cent higher; estimated volume was 26,500 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com