By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

Recovery rallies in the grains and energies allowed the cotton market to stay positive all day. However, cotton is mainly being supported by its own supply-demand situation, which traders believe to be bullish. Still, having outside positive market action is never negative.

The Federal Reserve meets this week and will announce its monetary policy on Wednesday. With that in mind, the Dollar Index was higher Monday, as slowing vaccinations and talk of a smaller COVID-19 relief package is causing the U.S. dollar to rally. It is generally accepted a stronger dollar is an impediment to U.S. agricultural exports.

USDA will report weekly export sales this Thursday. On a cumulative basis, sales for 2020-21 have reached 12.16 million bales versus last year’s same time amount of 11.86 million bales. Current season sales have reached 86% of the USDA’s forecast for the marketing year versus a five-year average of 73%.

For Monday, March cotton closed at 82.33 cents, up 0.77 cent, July settled at 84.14 cents, up 0.58 cent and December cotton ended at 78.88 cents, up 0.41 cent; estimated volume was 31,518 contracts.