DTN Closing Cotton            07/20 13:38

   Cotton Waffles Monday

   After posting triple-digit gains earlier Monday morning, the cotton market 
retreated to close fractionally higher. 

Keith Brown
DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst

   After posting triple-digit gains earlier Monday morning, the cotton market 
retreated to close fractionally higher. Some traders lost their bullish 
enthusiasm when the energies, grains and metals collectively began to wane. 
Later this week, USDA will be releasing crop condition and export sales 
information.

   Today at 4 p.m. EDT, USDA will update the condition of the 2026 crop. Of 
late, the good-to-excellent readings have been slipping. The highest point was 
54%, but last week it was 44% for the national crop.

   Also today, China will supposedly auction bales from state reserves. This 
move is being done to rotate certain seasonal storage and to feed their own 
textile mills.

   On Thursday, USDA will issue its weekly export sales report. Last week's 
business was bearish in that net sales for the current season were 34,000 
bales, a marketing-year-low effort. Weekly shipments were 214,900 bales, off 7% 
weekly.

   This Friday, the Commerce Department will release its New Home Sales data at 
10 a.m. EDT. This report, along with the Housing Starts report, play key roles 
in domestic consumption of cotton products.

   For Monday, December closed at 78.92 cents, up 29 points; March 2027 
finished at 80.29 cents, plus 28 points; and July 2027 settled at 80.90 cents, 
37 points higher. Monday's estimated volume was 31,937 contracts.

   Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com




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