May 1 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures slipped on Wednesday to their lowest in one-and-a-half years, pressured by long liquidation and lacklustre demand, as downbeat sentiment in oil and wider financial markets also weighed.
* Cotton contracts for July CTc2 fell 2.0 cents, or 2.6%, to 76.39 cents per lb by 11:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT), trading near their lowest level since November 2022.
* "There's still ongoing speculative long liquidation and they're pushing the market down ... the market got overpriced in the winter when prices went over a dollar, and now the market is trying to correct itself," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage, in Cleveland.
* "Weather is a concern as usual, but this year going into planting, the weather's been very good in the United States, but the harvest in Australia and Brazil has gone off without a hitch."
* Traders now await Thursday's U.S. Department of Agriculture weekly export sales report for more clarity on demand.
* Last week's report showed net sales of 177,100 running bales for 2023/2024, up 21% from the previous week and up 73% from the prior four-week average. EXP/COT
* Oil prices fell about 2% to a seven-week low on a surprise build in U.S. crude stocks, the prospect of a Middle East ceasefire agreement and persistent U.S. inflation dampening the expected pace of interest rate cuts and oil demand growth.
* Lower oil prices make cotton-substitute polyester less expensive.
* The tech-heavy Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 slipped on Wednesday as chip stocks led losses on downbeat results and markets assessed fresh economic data ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision.
Reporting by Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta