Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market wobbled both sides unchanged as traders positioned themselves for the end of calendar July. With that, there will be crop ratings, the Federal Reserve, GDP and export sales.    

Monday afternoon, USDA will issue its crop condition numbers. It is currently thought the Texas crop will see poorer ratings, while the Delta and the Southeastern crops may show some improvements.    

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate policy. At stake is a three-quarter-point rise, or a full point hike. Essentially the former is baked into the trade, while the latter could be decidedly bullish towards the U.S. dollar.    

Thursday will see the weekly export sales and second quarter GDP. Last week's exports showed larger total sales than the prior week, but China had three times the amount of cancellations than what cotton it had bought. Regarding GDP, traders will be looking for numerical clues as to how intense, or not, the recession may reflect.    

For Monday, December closed at 91.06 cents, up 0.17 cent, March 2023 finished at 87.36 cents, up 0.06 cent and July 2023 settled at 83.96 cents, 0.23 cent higher; estimated volume was 12,744 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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