July 8 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell nearly 2% on Monday on expectations of better growing conditions in major cotton-planting regions and worries over demand for the natural fiber amid concerns about global growth.
* The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S., the third-month December contract , settled down 1.18 cent, or 1.77%, at 65.64 cents per lb.
* It traded within a range of 65.57 and 67.1 cents a lb. Prices touched their lowest since June 26.
* “We are kind of looking ahead to improved weather. ... Anticipating some improved crop conditions. A lot of it is pessimism over world economics, the stocks are lower today pretty much,” said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price Futures Group in Chicago.
* The market was anticipating lower demand overall, he added.
* The dollar index was up about 0.1%, hovering around a three-week high, making greenback-denominated commodities expensive for holders of other currencies.
* “Part of (the cotton’s movement) is just technical. We couldn’t really get going to the upside at all and now we are right back down toward lows,” Scoville said.
* Cotton prices have mostly traded within a 5-cent-range in the past two months.
* Investors await the release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report, due on Thursday, along with the weekly export sales data.
* “U.S. crop looks decent at the moment ... There are no imminent drought conditions in West Texas; at this pace, it looks like the U.S. is set to produce an average yield at least, with low abandonment looking highly likely,” OCBC Bank analysts said in their weekly research note.
* Total futures market volume rose by 8,070 to 23,303 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,158 to 179,523 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as of July 3 totaled 67,727 480-lb bales, down from 72,254 in the previous session. (Reporting by Asha Sistla in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Cooney)
