In an ongoing odd reaction, December cotton barely managed a positive close Monday. In fact, the ICE Futures spent more time unchanged to negative than up on the day. Of course, last week the market was up 225 points give or take and is waiting for some type of “official loss number.”

To that end, we have heard USDA might do a special survey, or it may just easily wait till the November Supply and Demand report before committing to any sort of update.

One giant reason for the timidness of the market to trade higher lies at the feet of the U.S.-China trade war. Over the weekend, Fox News Sunday featured the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S., whose comments were entrenched over the tariff situation. No doubt the midterm elections will play a big part in its resolution.

President Trump is touring several areas in the Florida, Alabama, and Georgia that were hardest hit by Michael. Thus, the devastated area will have a national audience. Hopefully, there will be some hurricane aid for the cotton industry, as an estimated one million bales loss will be hard to overcome.

December cotton settled $.7872, up 35 points, March was $.7984, up 29 points, and Red December finished $.7678, down 21 points. Monday’s estimated volume was 24,800.