July 13 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures hit their lowest in over two weeks on Thursday after federal data showed that 2016/2017 U.S. exports dropped sharply to a marketing-year low.

The December cotton contract on ICE Futures settled down 0.9 cent, or 1.34 percent, at 66.37 cents per lb, its lowest since June 26. It traded within a range of 66.3 and 67.59 cents a lb.

Investors "were disappointed by the exports, and then we had technicals that look kind of negative," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton.

U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) data showed that U.S. exporters sold 13,000 running bales of upland cotton in the week ended July 6, touching a marketing-year low for 2016/2017. That was down 93 percent from the previous week and from the prior four-week average, the USDA data showed. For 2017/2018, exports of 195,300 bales were down 35 percent from the previous week.

"Today's U.S. Export figures were anemic for the current crop," Anestis Arampatzis, risk management consultant with INTL FCStone said in a note. "The market's dive below 66.50 triggered some long-standing mill fixations while the trading volume remains desperately light."

Total futures market volume rose by 3,516 to 18,023 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 980 to 211,738 contracts in the previous session. Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of July 12 totaled 72,473 480-lb bales, down from 77,766 in the previous session.

(Reporting by Swati Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)