NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures rose more than 1% to a near three-week high on Thursday, as the dollar weakened, after a federal weekly exports sales report highlighted strong buying activity from top consumer China.

The cotton contract for December was up 1.58 cents, or 1.4%, at 112.10 cents per lb by 11:46 a.m. EDT (1546 GMT). It traded within a range of 109.5 and 113.17 cents a lb.

"There are a couple of elements particularly driving the buying momentum for cotton prices like renewed optimism on trade talks between the US and China, with an influx of speculators buying the market," said Valentin Olah, cotton risk management consultant at StoneX Group.

"The export sales report highlights that there is a sustained healthy demand from different import markets, and I'm particularly talking about China and Turkey, both of these countries have consistently been buying," Olah added.

The US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report showed net sales of 360,800 running bales of cotton, up 6% from the prior 4-week average, with increases primarily for China. Meanwhile, making cotton less expensive for other currency holders, the dollar index fell to a one-week low against its rivals.

Total futures market volume fell by 8,215 to 25,211 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,616 to 286,727 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Oct. 27 totaled 26,021 480-lb bales, unchanged from 26,021 in the previous session.