* Players continue to roll out of March contacts
* Buyers seem to lose interest around 93 or 94 cents

NEW YORK, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures
finished with more than 1 percent declines on Friday, but
brokers said the selling was primarily profit taking ahead of a
long holiday weekend.
The U.S. cotton market, along with other commodity and
financial markets, will be closed on Monday for the U.S.
President's Day holiday.
The nearby March contract also lost ground to players
exiting their positions as the Feb. 23 delivery date approaches.
"People were taking profits ahead of the long weekend.
There's not a lot out there in the news," said Bill Raffety,
senior analyst for futures brokerage Penson Futures.
March cotton on ICE Futures U.S. lost a penny, or
1.08 percent, to stand at 91.45 cents per lb at the close.
Prices spanned 91.31 to 93.27, and fell to their lowest since
Tuesday. March volume came to 6,797 lots as more players exited
their positions ahead of the delivery period for the contract.
New benchmark May futures finished at 92.65 per lb, a
1.06 cent, and 1.13 percent, loss. The range extended from
92.39 to 94.29, but the low held within the parameters of an
uptrend line that began at the Dec. 15 low.
May volume came to a healthy 13,205 lots just after the
exchange session ended.
May's open interest continued to climb and was nearly
quadruple that of March, as participants rolled out of the
nearby contract into later-dated issues. On Thursday, open
interest in March futures slid by 7,136 to 21,215 lots. But,
open positions in May futures jumped by 3,589 to 83,316 lots.
"We've advanced quite a bit since the 10th and I think today
was just profit taking," he added.
Also, a number of foreign buyers came in the market after
prices decline last Thursday. But the buying this week has
driven cotton back up to levels where it starts to dry up.
"When it broke down to 90 cents you saw some people come in
and buy (cotton). But, there's not that much interest above 93
to 94 cents," said Raffety.
Open interest in cotton, an indicator of investor exposure
in the market, declined by 3,683 lots to 182,458 lots as of Feb.
16 ICE Futures U.S. data showed.
On Thursday, trading volume tumbled by 10,603 lots to
19,994 lots from Wednesday's tally, exchange data showed.