* Market players bide time, hit by late spec sales
* Trade awaits release of USDA export sales, plantings data

NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled lower
Wednesday on sales by speculators as bearish fundamentals more
than offset gains in global stocks, crude, grains and precious
metals, analysts said.
Benchmark December cotton on ICE Futures U.S. slipped
0.24 cent to finish at 67.96 cents per lb, moving from 67.93 to
69.19 cents. On Tuesday, the trading range was at 68.04 to 70.30
cents.
Volume traded Wednesday stood above 12,800 lots, almost 50
percent under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
All outside markets rose [0/R},
giving an initial boost to cotton. But the momentum faded late
in the session when speculators dumped cotton, brokers said.
"It is very difficult to find a motivation because there is
very little (encouraging) in the background," said Mike Stevens,
a long-time cotton dealer in Mandeville, Louisiana.
Fundamentally, traders said the market is looking at
plentiful supplies and weak fiber demand, which makes it tough
to sustain any advance in prices.
December cotton appears pinned in a band from 67 to 73
cents.
Brokers said the market awaited a pair of government
reports. The first, on Thursday, is the U.S. Agriculture
Department's weekly export sales report, which would gauge
cotton market conditions in the world.
The second is the annual USDA plantings data on Friday,
which will set the stage for how much will be planted in the
coming 2012/13 marketing year (August/July).
Tuesday's volume amounted to 19,150 lots, ICE Futures U.S.
data showed.
Open interest in the cotton market, an indicator of investor
exposure, stood at 166,771 lots as of June 26, barely changed
from the 166,768 lots as of June 25, exchange data showed.