Cotton slips to two-week low on harvest-friendly weather

    April 29 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell 1 percent to
touch a two-week low on Monday, as weather conditions across the
U.S. cotton growing areas improved for harvesting the natural
fiber crop.
    * The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. July
      
settled down 0.75 cent, or 0.97 percent, at 76.95 cents per lb.
    * The second-month contract        fell to its lowest level
since
April 15 at 76.85 per cents.
    * "Improved weather conditions across the U.S. are weighing
on
prices along with lower corn acreage across the southern U.S.,
which will likely translate in to higher cotton acreage," said
Louis Rose, director of research and analytics at
Tennessee-based Rose Commodity Group.
    * The outlook for cotton prices, however, remained bullish,
with
good demand for the natural fiber, according to analysts.
    * Meanwhile, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said
he
remains cautiously optimistic about prospects for a U.S.-China
trade deal and that he was expecting a much clearer picture on a
trade deal by end of the next two weeks.             
    * Market participants are keeping a close watch on weather
conditions across the United States and any update on U.S.-China
trade negotiations, said Jack Scoville, vice president at Price
Futures Group in Chicago.
    * Total futures market volume fell by 1,842 to 22,309 lots.
Data
showed total open interest fell 1,667 to 210,167 contracts in
the previous session.
    * Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as
of
April 25 totaled 64,241 480-lb bales, up from 62,657 in the
previous session.


 (Reporting by Brijesh Patel in Bengaluru
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)