Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market abruptly rallied off its 2.00-cent lower trade Monday amid the Pakistani announcement that 45% of that crop has been washed away in those generational floods. Millions of people and tens of thousands of hectares have been adversely affected.    

Monday afternoon, USDA will issue its Crop Progress report. Last week some 19% of the U.S. crop was shown to have open bolls. The developmental stage of the 2002 crop now stands where growers are more concerned about damage to bolls from rainfall. With cotton inventories very tight, per USDA's August crop report, any additional crop loss will only exacerbate the dwindling supply situation.    

Weather-wise, the one- to five-day forecast calls for big rains across West Texas and moderate amounts in the Delta. The six- to 10-day and eight- to 14-day outlooks call for normal to above-normal chances of rain for Texas, the Delta and the Southeast.    

The Dow improved on its lower trade Monday, as the U.S. dollar lost some of its gains. Yet the environment to hike rates remains intact, thus some traders are expecting a weaker Dow and stronger dollar in the weeks to come.    

For Monday, December closed at 117.16 cents, down 0.52 cent, March 2023 finished at 113.67 cents, down 0.70 cent and July 2023 settled at 105.09 cents, 0.91 cent lower; estimated volume was 16,258 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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