By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market lost more bullish ground Wednesday as traders viewed USDA’s reduction in Chinese consumption in Tuesday’s WASDE as a big negative. One explanation offered for the tapered consumption is related to China’s failing energy situation. Allegedly, some Chinese textile mills are said to be on a restricted production schedule, as the country faces some brownouts and some rolling blackouts.

Specifically, in its October WASDE, USDA lowered China consumption by 1 million bales. Additionally, global production was projected at 120.28 million bales for the 2021-22 crop year, about 700,000 bales higher than the September’s report. Lastly, global ending stocks increased by 450,000 bales to 87.13 million bales.

According to minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting, the central bank indicated it could begin reducing its stimulus as soon as mid-November. In a process known as tapering, the Fed would reduce the $120 billion a month in bond buys over time. The minutes indicated the Fed probably would start by cutting $10 billion a month in Treasuries and $5 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities.

For Wednesday, December settled at 103.86 cents, down 2.52 cents, March ended at 101.84 cents, minus 2.26 cents and December 2022 ended at 88.51 cents, 0.66 cent lower; estimated volume was 45,444 contracts.