June 14 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures settled almost
unchanged on Thursday as investors rolled over their positions
from the July contract to the December contract amid a
supportive weekly export sales report from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA).     
    * The most active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S., the
third-month December contract              , settled up 0.03
cent, or 0.03 percent, at 92.96 cents per lb. It traded within a
range of 91.62 and 93.33 cents a lb.
    * "We are seeing rollover from July to December. ... So
normally
you will see high volumes but sideways action. We also had
(WASDE) numbers this week which were in line with expectations,"
said Jon Marcus, president of brokerage firm Lakefront Futures
and Options in Chicago. 
    * "It seems to me there is a little bit of exhaustion over
the
moves from May. Now you are just seeing a bit of consolidation."
    * The USDA on Thursday reported net upland sales of 34,800
running
bales (RB) for 2017/2018, noticeably up from the previous week's
marketing-year low, and 226,700 RB for 2018-19 for the week
ended June 7. Exports of 459,900 RB were down 20 percent from
the previous week, but up 4 percent from the prior four-week
average.             
    * "I thought it (exports sales report) was relatively good.
It
shows there is good demand across markets," said Beau
Stephenson, senior vice president at Omnicotton Inc. 
    * "It wasn't overwhelming but there isn't that much to sell
right
now. With the uncertainty about the new crop, you wouldn't
imagine huge sales numbers at this time." 
    * China has approved 800,000 tonnes of additional cotton
import
quota for 2018, the state planner said on Thursday, confirming a
widely anticipated move by Beijing to allow more overseas
purchases.            
    * "The issuance of more sliding scale quota should be
market-supportive and offers some confirmation of rumors
regarding China's likely smaller cotton production this year,"
said Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at
Tennessee-based Rose Commodity. 
    * "At current prices, we think that the market will have
difficulty moving much higher – over the near-term, at least."
    * Total futures market volume fell by 23,802 to 43,733 lots.
Data
showed total open interest gained 1,005 to 310,613 contracts in
the previous session.
    * Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as
of June
13 totaled 80,590 480-lb bales, up from 79,472 in the previous
session.
    * Neutral conditions are likely through the Northern
Hemisphere
summer this year, a U.S. government weather forecaster said on
Thursday, indicating that the extreme weather patterns known as
El Niño or La Niña were less probable during this season.
            


 (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala and Sumita Layek in Bengaluru;
Editing by Peter Cooney)