Aug 1 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures rose 1% on Tuesday as an ongoing heat wave in the U.S. delta and southeast spurred concerns over the water intensive natural fiber crop.
* The most-active December cotton contract CTZ3 rose 0.87 cent to 85.59 cents per lb by 12:14 p.m. EDT (1614 GMT). It traded in a range of 84.61 to 85.87 cents a lb.
* It's "still pretty hot out there in Texas, the delta and the southeast," and that is driving cotton's gains, said Jack Scoville, vice president at Chicago-based Price Futures Group.
* Support is also coming from an uneven monsoon in key producers India and Pakistan, Scoville added.
* India is likely to receive below-average rainfall in August due to the El Nino weather pattern, a senior weather department official said on Monday, after an above-average monsoon in July helped farmers accelerate crop planting.
* Cotton's gains came despite a rise in the dollar versus major currencies, as investors took comfort from relatively solid U.S. manufacturing and construction data, which offset a decline in job openings last month.
* A higher dollar typically weighs on demand for U.S. cotton, especially among overseas investors. USD/
* Chicago corn and soybean futures were little changed after sliding a day earlier when participants assessed U.S. crop weather and prospects for export. GRA/
Reporting by Harshit Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri