By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent 

The cotton market was higher Tuesday amid a slight improvement in the good-to-excellent rating. Monday, USDA reported the overall crop’s good-to-excellent eased higher from last week’s 39% level to its present 40% rating. To that end, the current U.S. crop stands at a 14-year high until, or unless, USDA alters the size and scope of production on its October 10 supply and demand report.

The month of October is the official kickoff time for the harvest season, which typically runs through the end of December. Of course, adverse weather can prolong this annual event into January and beyond. Current data has the crop 16% gathered, which mirrors the five-year pace.

As it stands, the U.S.-China trade talks resume on October 10. That meeting is perilously close to the Trump Administration’s deadline of October 15, which imposes an additional $250 billion dollar tariffs. Moreover, another set of tariffs are set to go into effect on December 15.

The next bit of data for the market will be Thursday’s weekly sales and exports. Last week saw an improvement in total sales versus the prior two weeks, although shipments were off. The fear among traders is the cheaper the price of cotton becomes, the greater the odds for the market to experience cancellations.

For Tuesday, December cotton settled at 60.98 cents, up 0.15 cent, March was 61.66 cents, up 0.11 and December 2020 finished at 63.94, down 0.01 cent. Volume was 28,373.