* Market rebounds after steep Tuesday decline
* Trade eyes USDA export sales report Thursday

NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled higher
Wednesday on trade and speculative buying as the market bounced
back from a profit-taking sell-off in the previous session,
brokers said.

The benchmark December cotton contract on ICE Futures
U.S. increased 0.87 cent or by 1.2 percent to end at 71.92 cents
per lb, trading from 70.45 to 72.92 cents.

On Tuesday, December lost 2.25 cents to close at 71.05 cents
in the biggest daily percentage fall in the contract since June
21, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The contract's Monday close at 73.30 cents was the highest
for the second-position cotton contract since June 19, Thomson
Reuters data showed.

Volume traded Wednesday stood near 11,700 lots, some
two-thirds under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co.
in Moultrie, Georgia, said the strong tone of both stocks and
grain markets "influenced" cotton futures.

U.S. and European stocks were lifted by solid corporate
results on both sides of the Atlantic.

U.S. corn futures fell in a pause to the biggest grains
rally since 2008.

The market will now take a look at the weekly export sales
report of the U.S. Agriculture Department due out on Thursday at
8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT).

The report may have little impact as the end of the 2011/12
marketing year nears(August/July).

Open interest, an indicator of investor interest in a
market, stood at 171,735 lots as of July 17, the exchange said.

Volume traded on Tuesday amounted to 19,674 lots, according
to ICE Futures data.