By Keith Brown, DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market finished sharply lower Monday as the wildness in the Dow Jones and liquidation of on-call cotton forced prices down. Currently, cotton has reached price levels not seen since 2009.

The lowest price during that 10-year interim was the February 2019 low of 54.16 cents. Despite superb exports-sales, the market is dialing in the potential for demand destruction for the world.

Additionally, crude oil has reached levels making it increasingly attractive for the production of synthetic apparel.

The U.S. dollar kicked up another higher level today as traders bought on a flight-to-quality hedge. The dollar nearly traded the 104 level which erased the January 2017 high of 103.81. Normally, a strong dollar is a detriment to exports agricultural, but with such stout foreign demand, a high dollar doesn’t seem to be an issue.

Congress is presently debated a mammoth stimulus package to fight coronavirus and save the U.S. economy. To that end, some incomprehensible numbers are being tossed about, some as high a six-trillion-dollars. To place that number in some sort of perspective, the entirety World War II cost the world 2.5-trillion-dollars.

Monday, May cotton closed at 52.15 cents, down 1.53 cents, July finished at 51.54 cents, down 2.20 cents and December ended at 52.77 cents, down 2.26 cents. Estimated volume was 65,394 contracts.