By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market diverged Tuesday as old crop months were lower, while new crop contracts were higher. Both May and July cotton were down as the U.S. dollar was stronger, and last week’s export sales were non-supportive, December cotton, on the other hand, was higher. In fact, it posted a new contract high as traders question the 2022 acres given the input costs and the Texas drought.

Traders are looking ahead to Thursday’s export sales and Friday supply-demand report for directional guidance. Obviously, a big sales and shipments numbers is needed Thursday, while expectations are high for a reduction in domestic and global ending stocks on Friday.

The Six- to 10-day forecast currently shows normal to above-normal chances of rainfall in some parts of Texas and Oklahoma, but the eight- to 14-day outlooks indicate drier conditions will return.

There is peripheral talk that the U.S. is prepared to place sanctions on India for its friendly actions towards Russia. As of this writing, no penalties have been proposed nor implemented. India is a major global producer and exporter of cotton. However, in recent years, it has had to import U.S. cotton.

Tuesday, May cotton settled at 137.53 cents, down 0.41 cent, July closed at 133.97 cents, down 0.31 cent and December finished at 114.82 cents, 1.06 cents higher; estimated volume was 40,091 contracts.