* Cotton is 3rd worst performing commodity in Aug

* Month-end book squaring pushed prices higher

* Buy stops triggered at 82.43 cents/lb

NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures ended higher on Friday on technical buying after prices tested fresh June lows earlier in the session and as portfolio managers and dealers squared their books ahead of the month's end and the U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.

Even so, fiber finished the month down 2 percent and was the third worst performing commodity of the 19 components in the Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index.

Benchmark December cotton contracts representing the 2013/14 harvest on ICE Futures U.S. settled at 83.49 cents a lb, up 0.25 cent, or about 0.3 percent.

Buy stops were triggered after prices hit 82.43 cents, its lowest level since early June.

"Today's rally could be more of a response to month-end trading than signifying an end to the recent 11-cent selloff," said Sharon Johnson, cotton specialist, Knight Futures in Georgia.

"However, this is an outside day on the charts and the better volume will give the bulls a reason to enjoy the upcoming weekend all the more," she said.

Even so, concerns about changes in China's stockpiling policy continued to hurt sentiment and have contributed to an exodus of speculative money in recent weeks.

The Chinese government is preparing to scrap a controversial scheme to stockpile cotton in favor of subsidizing farmers, a move that could slash imports by the world's top buyer of the fiber and herald a broad shakeup of Beijing's sensitive farm policies, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Prices have slumped 11 percent since peaking at 93.72 cents two weeks ago, although they are up 9 percent year-to-date.

Traders expected a drop in the size of the speculative long when data is released later on Friday. In the week to Aug. 20, they had built their most bullish position in cotton in five months. (Reporting by Josephine Mason; editing by Jim Marshall)