By Keith Brown DTN Cotton Correspondent

The cotton market was lower Tuesday as bearish speculators began to perhaps rebuild their net short position, as one time this year, speculators were net short over 49,000 plus contracts. Afterwards, they pared that slanted net short position of 24,000 contracts and remain net short through Tuesday.

Now against the fundamental backdrop a huge 2019 crop and possibly wobbly trade talks with China, speculators may be feeling somewhat embolden to add to their short position.

Thursday is looking to be the “trifecta” of news events, with weekly sales and exports, monthly supply-demand estimates and the initiation of the U.S.-China trade talks. How that day ends depends on not only the look of data and news, but how the market responds.

Australia is dry! According to the Sky News International, Cubbie Station, Australia’s largest cotton producer virtually has zero water in its reservoirs. Those holding areas normally hold enough water to fill Sydney Harbor, but now, to reiterate, it is bone dry. Our understanding is China owns the production there at Cubbie Station, Australia.

Tuesday, December cotton settled at 61.32 cents, down 0.51 cent, March ended at 62.03 cent, down 0.54 cent and December 2020 settled at 64.19 cents, down 0.63 cent. Estimated volume was 24,254 contracts.