Oct 12 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures held steady on Thursday as a stronger dollar offset support from a slightly positivefederal monthly supply-demand report that showed lowerU.S. production.
* Cotton contract for December CTZ3 was little changed at 84.92 cents per lb at 2:55 p.m. ET (1855 GMT).
* The dollar index =USD was up about 0.7%, making cotton more expensive for buyers overseas. USD/
* "The U.S. dollar is very strong while the stock market is down, so that is sort of impeding the cotton market from going up," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton broker Keith Brown and Co in Georgia.
* The USDA in its October World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report cutU.S. production in 2023/24 to 12.8 million bales, citing lower yields in Texas.
* "I think it's more friendly than it is bearish ... I'm sure we'll try to to move higher, and once people start digesting it (WASDE report), maybe we can get this market to bounce back up into that area again," said Jim Nunn, owner of Tennessee-based cotton brokerage Nunn Cotton.
* The USDA also said Brazil's cotton production in 2023/24 will exceed that of the United Statesfor the first time, and that the South American country is close to surpassing U.S. cotton exports for the first time since the 19th century .
* Elswhere, Ivory Coast exported 178,541 tonnes of cotton from January to August, down 45% from the same period last year, provisional port data showed.
Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese and Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Maju Samuel