Storms brought beneficial rains to the Southeast and Delta. Workload 99% completed at the Rayville classing office. Module tarps in short supply in Oklahoma. Abilene classing facility added a third shift. Texas High Plains harvest estimated 70% to 75% completed.

Cotton futures finished mixed on light volume Monday, with March trading within the previous-session range and closing marginally lower.

March settled down three points at 71.01 cents, in the lower quarter of its 95-point range from up 71 points at 71.75 to down 24 points at 70.80 cents. It settled back below its 18-day moving average.

Maturing December, facing its last trading day on Wednesday, closed up 33 points to 72.31 cents, the only contract in the plus column. December 2017 settled down 33 points to 69.60 cents.

Volume slowed to an estimated 14,805 lots from 21,336 lots the prior session when spreads accounted for 4,458 lots or 21%, EFP 99 lots and EFS eight lots. Options volume totaled 1,223 calls and 1,316 puts.

A band of storm systems across the lower Southeast brought 2 to 4 inches of beneficial moisture to parts of Central Alabama and Central Georgia during the week ended Thursday, USDAΆs Agricultural Marketing Service reported in a weekly cotton review.

Lesser accumulations of around a quarter of an inch or less fell along the Gulf Coast and Southeast Georgia. The scattered moisture slowed fieldwork, but harvesting was nearing completion.

Droughty fall conditions and lower dryland and irrigated yields have prompted some gins to lower estimates for the season. In Alabama, yields of 850 to 1,200 pounds per acre were reported. In Georgia, dryland yields ranged around 500 to 700 pounds and irrigated yields 900 to 1,400 pounds.

Scattered showers brought light, localized rainfall of generally less than a tenth of an inch to areas of the Upper Southeast. Harvest neared completion. Yields of 750 to 850 pounds were reported in much of the Carolinas and 600 to 900 pounds in Virginia.

Localized, heavy downpours brought up to 2 inches of much-needed moisture to parts of the North Delta. Wildfires in the extremely dry parts of eastern Tennessee claimed at least seven lives in the Gatlinburg area, forced evacuation of thousands of residents and destroyed hundreds of buildings. Several gins completed operations throughout the region.

A cold front brought heavy rain to the South Delta. Up to 4 inches fell in some locales in Louisiana, while lesser amounts were reported in Mississippi. Year-to-date rainfall remained 12 to 20 inches below normal through November. The Rayville classing office estimated its workload was 99% completed for the season.

Rainfall early in the period delayed final harvesting in the Texas Blackland Prairies. A few gins continued operations in the Upper Coast. Most irrigated fields were harvested in Oklahoma and producers rushed to harvest remaining dryland cotton ahead of a storm. A producer reported that module tarps were in short supply because of high yields.

In the West Texas Plains, the Abilene classing office added a third shift to keep pace with increased sample receipts. Patchy, blowing dusty and light rainfall in the southern Rolling Plains intermittently slowed harvesting progress.

On the High Plains, the Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. estimated that 70% to 75% of the crop in its 41-county area was harvested ahead of widespread rainfall Friday and Saturday. This would indicate that about 1.1 million to 1.3 million bales of the High Plains crop as estimated last month remained on the stalk.

Futures open interest declined 2,895 lots Friday to 252,540, with DecemberΆs down 59 lots to 495, MarchΆs down 3,599 lots to 179,457 and MayΆs up 494 lots to 39,291. Cert stocks grew 1,854 bales to 58,085. Awaiting review were 3,110 bales at Greenville, S.C.