Cotton futures fell on signs of dwindling demand for supplies from the U.S., the worldΆs biggest exporter.

In the week ended Aug. 11, overseas buyers scrapped orders for 337,000 bales of upland cotton, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today. A bale weighs 480 pounds (218 kilograms).

“Export sales were pretty dismal,” John Flanagan, the president of Flanagan Trading Corp. in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “What that says is that thereΆs not much demand for cotton this year. Factories arenΆt going to buy cotton if stores arenΆt going to buy clothes.”

Cotton for December delivery fell 0.87 cent, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $1.0695 a pound at 2:45 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. Earlier, the price tumbled 4 cents, the most allowed by the exchange. The fiber has tumbled 26 percent this year as demand slumped in China, the leading importer.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials dropped as much as 2.5 percent as concerns mounted that the global economy is sagging.