Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was lower Tuesday, losing an earlier 3.00-cent gain. The decline happened despite the fact Hurricane Ian could still threaten the Southeast crop. However, a weak Dow Jones and a surging U.S. dollar collectively undermined many positive commodities markets. The fact cotton traded lower in the face of such potential adversity says something about poor demand. To that end, USDA will issue fresh export sales this Thursday.    

The U.S. dollar regained the bullish edge Tuesday as a couple of economic numbers reported stronger-than-expected data. Durable goods (non-defense) were a positive 1.3% versus last month's .2%, while new home sales were 685,000 units versus an expectation of 500,000 units sold. The strength in these numbers suggest that the Federal Reserve is justifying in maintaining its higher interest rate policy. Thus, the U.S. dollar traded higher.    

Crude oil was higher Tuesday, supported by supply curbs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico ahead of Hurricane Ian and the potential that OPEC+ may take some action to halt the "spill" in prices at its Oct. 5 meeting. An OPEC+ spokesman indicated the cartel was monitoring prices and didn't want a sharp increase or a collapse.    

For Tuesday, December closed at 88.09 cents, down 0.28 cent; March 2023 finished at 85.39 cents, down 0.55 cent and July 2023 settled at 81.28 cents, 0.36 cent lower; estimated volume was 37,355 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.