By Keith Brown, DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst 

The cotton market was able to slough off intense selling pressure to close acceptably lower. Of course, Monday saw the market flash a strong first-of-the-month rally, so to see something of a correction Tuesday was permissible. After posting its huge top last Thursday, cotton is now in need of new news to return to its bullish trend. The first opportunity will be Thursday weekly export sales.

This Friday, the Labor Department will issue its jobs reports. With more COVID-19 shots given, traders are expecting a larger number for non-farm payrolls. Analysts currently expect 180,000 jobs versus 49,000 for last month.

OPEC-plus nations are meeting this Thursday to decide on global oil production. It is being circulated for traders to expect a 500,000-barrel-per-day increase in daily global production. The rationale is thought as COVID-19 dissipates so will the demand for energy increase.

Tuesday, May cotton closed at 90.99 cents, down 0.58 cent, July settled at 91.92 cents, down 0.54 cent and December cotton ended at 86.45 cents, down 0.34 cent; estimated volume was 27,092 contracts.