By Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market traded in a muted funk all day Tuesday. Volume was low, and the range was less than 1 cent.

The cotton market traded in a muted funk all day Tuesday. Volume was low, and the range was less than 1 cent. Traders are wanting to see what new acre revelations might emerge in Friday’s September WASDE. For some time, traders have been questioning this year’s planted acres from USDA versus the certified acres as reported by the FSA. Supposedly that situation will get resolved this Friday.

Tuesday afternoon USDA will issue its holiday-delayed crop condition report. Last week tabulators rated the U.S. crop at 70%, near a modern day high. Last year at this time, the crop was rated at 44% good to excellent. However, since that time, there have been several adverse rain events, including Hurricane Ida, to invade the Delta and the Southeast.

The U.S. dollar was markedly higher Tuesday, despite last week’s poor jobs data. Apparently, currency traders decided that the ever-increasing COVID-19 infections are enough to potentially slow the global economy, and thus sought out the flight-to-quality trade towards the greenback. Additionally, a pittance of Democratic resistance towards the $3.5 trillion stimulus legislation is also supportive to the U.S. dollar.

For Tuesday, December settled 94.05 cents, up 0.03 cent, March ended at 93.26 cents, unchanged, and December 2022 ended at 83.07 cents, 0.19 cent lower; estimated volume was 17,422 contracts.