Oct 26 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures slipped over 1 percent on Thursday as concerns of crop damage due to freezing weather in West Texas faded, with prices further weighed down by a stronger dollar.
Cotton contracts for December settled down 1.12 cent, or 1.62 percent, at 68.19 cents per lb. Cotton traded within a range of 68.1 and 69.27 cents a lb. The contract registered its biggest one-day percentage fall since Sept. 12.
On Monday, the contract rose over 4 percent, in its largest one-day percentage gain, on expectations of crop damage following forecasts for freezing weather later in the week.
"Since Monday we've had several days for more of the cotton bolls to open up," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia. "I think less than 10 percent of the Texas crop is vulnerable to that damage. ... Also, we have a huge crop coming up," Brown added.
Meanwhile, the dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was up 1.00 percent. The dollar has risen in recent days on optimism about forthcoming federal tax cuts and speculation U.S. President Donald Trump would select someone to head the Federal Reserve who may want to raise interest rates at a faster pace than current Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
Weekly export sales data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed net upland sales totaled 289,100 running bales - a marketing-year high - for the period ending Oct. 19, up 14 percent from the week before. Total futures market volume rose by 2,793 to 22,986 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,022 to 232,800 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Oct. 25 totaled 2,047 480-lb bales, unchanged from the previous session.
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)