June 28 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures rebounded on Wednesday on technical buying after prices fell below the key 80-cent level, while traders positioned for a federal report that could show a drop in acreage of the natural fiber.

* The most-active December cotton contract CTz3 edged up 0.4 cent, or 0.55%, at 77.5 cents per lb by 12:06 a.m. EDT (1606 GMT). It traded in a range of 76.92 and 78.32 cents a lb.

* The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) annual acreage report would be released at noon EDT (1600 GMT) on Friday. Analysts estimate 11.119 millions acres of U.S. plantings of cotton in 2023, down from 2022 plantings of 13.763 millions acres.

* Market expectations that those final planted acreage numbers will be lower even than what the early estimates showed in Friday's report are driving some optimism, said Bailey Thomen, cotton risk management associate at StoneX Group.

* On the technical front, after five days of losses, prices seemed to be in oversold territory, finding support right around 77 cents, bouncing back just a little bit on some speculative buying, Thomen added.

* Investors also took stock of the news that key buyer China's total cotton planting area has fallen 10.3% versus last year, according to survey data from May.

* This comes a day after Bloomberg News reported that China could release its own stockpiles amid lower domestic supply.

* Although this could also mean reduced imports into the country since China usually acquires cotton via import quotas, some analysts said overall, some of the supply may eventually come from the U.S., benefiting prices.

* Also on the radar was the USDA's weekly export sales data due on Thursday.

Reporting by Ananya Bajpai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar