March 29 Cotton futures traded lower on Tuesday
on expectations China will soon begin offloading its huge
reserves and in cautious trading ahead of the U.S. government's
planting intentions report on Thursday.

The plantings report will likely not be bullish and until it
is seen how the Chinese auctions are received, "the air of
uncertainty seems to be enjoyed more by the bears," Ron Lee,
general manager at McCleskey Cotton in Bronwood, Georgia, said
in a note.

China's government may begin selling from its reserves from
mid-April, with a priority to offer good-quality cotton,
including imported fibre.

* The front-month May contract on ICE Futures U.S.
settled down 0.42 cent, or 0.73 percent, at 57.38 cents per lb
after trading between 57.22 and 57.94 cents.

* The dollar index was down 0.82 percent. The Thomson
Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19
commodities, was down 0.64 percent.

* Total futures market volume rose by 433 to 14,702 lots.
Data showed total open interest gained 1,675 to 215,388
contracts in the previous session.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by James
Dalgleish)