Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market traded both sides unchanged Tuesday, sometimes even sharply so, but finally settled with old crop lower and new crop higher. Overall, cotton remains in a well-defined bull market driven by compelling foreign demand, and seemingly a rickety start to the new crop season.    

Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce any changes to its interest rate policy. Most traders believe a 50-basis point hike is baked in, but still fear what the Fed might say in its policy statement regarding other future increases. The U.S. dollar was down Tuesday.    

Natural gas surged Tuesday to its highest level in nearly 14 years as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to wreak havoc on global energy markets. Henry Hub prices jumped more than 9% to $8.14 per million British thermal units during Tuesday's morning's trade. That was the highest level since September 2008. The upward acceleration is also being fueled by surging demand for US LNG. The price rise is exacerbating inflationary pressures being felt across the economy.    

For Tuesday, May cotton settled at 153.33 cents, down 3.83 cents, July closed at 150.08 cents, down 0.73 cent and December finished at 126.18 cents, 0.01 cent lower; estimated volume was 29,439 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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