By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

The cotton market dropped off its triple-digit gains from earlier Monday, as disappointed traders elected to vacate their positions. The strength of the market was its reassessment of last week’s positive fundamentals. These included strong weekly export sales, a big reduction in global carryout and an exceptionally high inflation report (CPI) on Friday.

Yet surrounding markets on Monday were more forced on the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting (Tuesday and Wednesday) and the probability of it pulling back on economic stimulus (tapering).

Despite the notion that the 2021 harvest is all but complete, there remain large pockets of cotton in fields yet to be gathered. To that end, the six- to 10-day weather forecast calls for above-normal rainfall from Texas to Georgia. Temperatures ranged from near normal for Texas to above normal from Georgia up to Virginia.

Crude oil and related markets fell lower Monday as doubts emerged about the effectiveness of vaccines against the omicron variant. The omicron variant, reportedly to be in more than 60 countries, poses a very high global risk, according to the W.H.O. In its assessment, the U.N. organization said there is some evidence that omicron does evade certain vaccine protection.

However, in its recent monthly meeting OPEC, the oil cartel, indicated that the variant’s impact on global fuel demand will be mild.

Monday, March Cotton settled at 106.81 cents, up 0.58 cent, July ended at 103.20 cents, up 0.40 cent and December ended at 89.92 cents, 0.17 cent higher; Monday estimated volume was 19,044 contracts.