1522 EST [Dow Jones]--Cotton futures on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange for
December delivery settled down 5.58 cents, close to the day's 6-cent "limit
down," or nearly 4% at $1.4565 a pound after seven days of record setting
settlements Wednesday. "It was never a question of if, it was when we would do
this," said Sharon Johnson, an analyst with First Capitol Group in Atlanta.
However, Tom Mikulski, senior market strategist with Lind-Waldock in Chicago,
noted that cotton prices remain supported by continuing demand from China and
crop deficits such as that described in a U.S. Department of Agriculture
estimation report Tuesday of U.S. ending stocks at their lowest since 1925.