By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

After Tuesday’s sharp rally, the cotton market retreated Wednesday. Traders took in some profits and they kept watch on weather developments across West Texas. This past weekend saw torrential rains there, resulting in some flooding and hail. To that end, some Texas growers indicated they may be forced to delete cotton and plant other crops, as the current field delays may cause them to miss certain crop insurance dates.

The U.S. dollar was higher Wednesday after a series of down weeks. Currency traders are torn between two fundamental dynamics: how much more extra stimulus coming out of Washington will dampen the dollar’s buying power and if the Federal Reserve were to hike interest rates sooner than expected. That latter action would be dollar positive.

Due to the Memorial Day observance, most government reports will be delayed a day. Thus, Thursday’s weekly export sales will be issued on Friday morning. However, right on schedule will be the Labor Department’s unemployment data. Last month’s total non-farms jobs were 226,000, but expectations were for some 900,000 jobs.

This gave rise to the notion people were not participating in the economy as they can make more money staying at home than pursuing work. This Friday’s estimate is 650,000 non-farm jobs.

Wednesday, July cotton closed at 83.77 cents, down 0.48 cent, December settled 84.66 cents, down 0.15 cent and March 2022 ended at 84.61 cents, down 0.05 cent; estimated volume was 36,065 contracts.