May 17 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell on Wednesday on expectations of a bearish weekly export sales report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday.

The first month July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. closed limit down on Tuesday on a technical sell-off and speculator liquidation after cotton hit near three-year highs on Monday.

"I think there are some in the industry who expect some export sales cancellations to show up in (Thursday's) weekly report," said INTL FCStone analyst Andy Ryan. "(The market) is trading like we're about to get some bearish news," Ryan noted.

* The July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. settled down 1.15 cent, or 1.41 percent, at 80.17 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 79.63 and 83.04 cents a lb.
* Total futures market volume fell by 8,760 to 36,570 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,178 to 264,211 contracts in the previous session.
* Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of May 16 totaled 384,842 480-lb bales, up from 374,699 in the previous session.

(Reporting by Nithin Prasad in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)