Sept 13 (Reuters) - Cotton prices rose on Friday to post their best week in over a year on hopes of a trade deal between the biggest consumer of the fiber, China, and the United States. * Cotton contracts for December settled up 0.07 cent, or 0.1%, at 62.28 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 62.07 and 63.39 cents a lb, its highest level since Aug. 1 .
* On a weekly basis, prices for the second-month contract gained about 6.3% this week, its best since the week ended June 1, 2018.
* "The market is up a little bit due to the expectations of a trade agreement and also expectations of a little more buying from China," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland, Mississippi.
* U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday he would consider an interim trade deal with China but said he would rather reach a larger agreement on the issues.
* Cheering on the news, the natural fiber rose 4.8% on Thursday, its highest since June 2012. Analysts and traders attributed the surge to some investors covering their short positions.
* Prices have fallen over 15% so far this year on the backdrop of the protracted trade war between the United States and China.
* "It really comes down to if we can get some kind of trade deal because we had expanded acres this year and we have a decent crop coming out of west Texas but nowhere to put it," said John Payne, senior broker at Daniels trading.
* "It's tough to see prices at 65 cents, even harder to see 70; to get the market moving we need exports better than 75,000 bales that we saw on Thursday," Payne said.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported net upland sales of 74,600 running bales (RB) for 2019/20, down 54 percent from the previous week and 63 percent from the prior four-week average.
* Meanwhile, adding to supply glut concerns, a slightly bearish U.S. governments' World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report forecast world ending stocks for 2019/20 to be 1.3 million bales higher than last month's forecast, at 83.7 million bales, which is 2.9 million bales above the revised 2018/19 estimate. (https://bit.ly/2kJszpJ)
* Total futures market volume fell by 23,193 to 37,636 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 4,890 to 234,320 contracts in the previous session. (Reporting by Sumita Layek in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
