Cotton futures ended in the red on Monday, with all contracts seeing modest losses on what was otherwise a slow trading day for the market. The lead December contract spent the entire session in negative territory, but losses were relatively muted as the market continues to consolidate after its recent move higher. Improved precipitation forecasts for both West Texas and India look to dispel some of the nearby concerns in the market about crop production prospects in these two important regions, but we remain very much in a weather market over the next few weeks as crops develop in the Northern Hemisphere. To that end, the latest crop progress report from the USDA did see the US cotton crop go slightly backwards, as 13% of the US crop is now estimated to be in poor to very poor condition as of 24/7, up from 10% the previous week.