* India fades as market factor, for now
* Cotton awaits leads, eyes USDA export data

NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled
slightly firmer Tuesday as it ended a five-day losing streak on
trade and possible consumer buying, analysts said.
The benchmark May contract on ICE Futures U.S. rose
0.04 cent to finish at 88.04 cents per lb, dealing from
87.94 to 88.93 cents. It was an inside day within Monday's
87.01 to 89.16 cents band.
Volume traded Tuesday reached about 17,000 lots, about 30
percent under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
"After five down days, the market is due for some
consolidation," said Mike Stevens, an independent analyst in
Louisiana.
He said the cotton market has been pinned in a range just
under 88 to 94 cents, basis spot month, for several weeks.
Traders said consumer buying always seem to emerge when the
cotton price falls below 88 cents and any advance seems capped
above 94 cents.
Most of the buying seems to come from No. 1 consumer China,
whose cotton imports in February climbed 234 percent to 616,000
tonnes.
The cotton market here is also waiting for news from India,
which last week banned cotton exports and then relented by
deciding this week to allow some cotton to be shipped, with the
industry and the government split over the issue.

India is the world's No. 2 cotton producer and the biggest
exporter after the United States.
The cotton trade is also waiting for the U.S. Agriculture
Department's weekly export sales data due out on Thursday at
8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT) to gauge how demand is shaping up
during the week of India's back-and-forth decision on exports.
Analysts said the market is still weighed by bearish
fundamentals which could be seen in the USDA's supply report
released last week.
USDA increased the world 2011/12 cotton production forecast
to 123.64 million (480-lb) bales from an earlier estimate of
123.34 million, reduced world consumption to 108.72 million
bales from 109.71 million, and upped world ending stocks to
62.32 million from 60.77 million bales.
USDA has been steadily cutting world cotton output and
usage, causing stocks to expand, over the last few months.