July 5 (Reuters) -Cotton contracts slipped to their lowest in more than two weeks on Friday on expectations of good weather boosting supplies from key growing regions.
* Cotton contract for December CTZ4 fell 1.38 cents, or 1.9%, to 70.90 cents per lb at 12:02 p.m. EDT (1602 GMT) and was trading in a range of 71.01 to 72.61 cents per lb.
* The December contract, which hit its lowest since June 18, was down about 2.4% so far this week.
* The dip is likely due to potential rain from the Hurricane Beryl in Texas, adding to existing bearish factors like low volume and weak technicals, said Keith Brown, principal at cotton broker Keith Brown and Co, in Georgia.
* Forecasts for intermittent rain in key cotton-growing regions strengthens case for a larger-than-expected crop, Brown added.
* The U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory that storm Beryl made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula as a category 2 hurricane, and was about 5 miles (10 km) northeast of Tulum, Mexico.
* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) annual acreage report last week showed a 14% increase in the total cotton planted area for 2024, estimated at 11.7 million acres. COT/N
* Meanwhile, the USDA's weekly report showed export sales of 175,800 running bales (RB), up 25% from the last week and 3% from the prior four-week average. EXP/COT
* The report also showed net sales of 115,400 RB for 2023/2024, up 27% from the last week but down 23% from the prior four-week average.
Reporting by Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar