By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market flirted with challenging its recent 91.00-cent high Monday morning, but hedge-type selling pushed the futures down. Overall, volume was a muted 19,000 contracts traded.

Traders will analyze Monday afternoon’s weekly crop condition data for any clues as to the standing of the crop. At last count, the national crop was rated 61% good to excellent, but since that time, the Delta and the Southeast have been hit with huge and unwanted rain episodes.

Traders are also anticipating this Thursday’s weekly export sales. Thus far, new-crop U.S. sales are running below last year’s pace, but this report will be the first of the new 2021/-22 season.

On Friday, the Labor Department will issue its jobs report. Early expectations suggest some 880,000 new non-farm jobs were created in July. Last month’s reading was 850,000.

Weather outlooks are calling for heavy rains across the Delta and Southeast. In fact, some 5-6 inches are expected this week across the South.

For Monday, December settled 89.63 cents, up 0.24, March ended at 89.33 cents, up 0.26 cent and December 2022 ended at 80.94 cents, up 0.15 cent; estimated volume was 19,260 contracts.