NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) – ICE cotton futures advanced on Wednesday as forecasts of rain in Texas stoked worries over potential damage to crops in the United States, the worldΆs largest exporter. Rains were forecast for late Wednesday and Thursday in major growing regions in Texas, the countryΆs top producing state.

“Some of those rains could get into West Texas and cause some damage,” said Jack Scoville, vice president for Price Futures Group in Chicago. The wet weather was expected to arrive at a time when the vast majority of the cropΆs bolls are open, leaving the plants highly susceptible to damage, traders said.

The cotton contract for December on ICE Futures U.S. CToi1 settled up by 0.45 cent, up 0.7 percent, to 64.23 cents per pound. It traded within a range of 63.65 and 64.66 cents a lb.

Total futures market volume rose by 16,490 to 29,631 lots.

Data showed total open interest gained 764 to 193,661 contracts in the previous session.

Certificated cotton stocks CERT-COT-STX deliverable as of Oct.

20 totaled 42,445 480-lb bales, down from 43,409 in the previous session.

The dollar index .DXY was up 0.13 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index .TRJCRB , which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.93 percent.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)