NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures ended mixed
on Monday as the market consolidated after last week's
commodity sell-off and players adjusted positions before the
release of a key government crop report, analysts said.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's monthly supply/demand
report is due on Wednesday. It will contain the first
preliminary estimate of supply/demand conditions in the
upcoming 2011/12 marketing year (August/July).

'I think people are waiting to see (the report),' said Mike
Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana.

The key July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
fell 0.16 cent to settle at $1.454 per lb, trading from $1.4321
to $1.4856. It was the lowest close for cotton in almost four
months, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The new-crop December cotton futures rose 1.49 cents
to close at $1.2378 cents per lb.

Volume traded stood at almost 9,200 lots, nearly two-thirds
below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data
showed.

Analysts said the USDA report would be a starting point for
the market in gauging world supplies, consumption and ending
stocks in 2011/12.

The report will rely a lot on what market sources say is an
educated guess for supply and demand since detailed surveys of
cotton crops in the United States and elsewhere will not be
available until the USDA releases August supply figures.

Investor interest in the cotton market continued to
weaken.

Open interest dropped to 147,578 lots as of May 6, the
lowest since October 2009, from 148,291 lots in the previous
session, data from ICE Futures U.S. showed.

Volume traded in the cotton market was 14,795 lots as of
May 6, versus the previous tally of 22,693 lots, exchange data
showed.