NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures closed
down 1 percent, pressured by the broad selloff in commodities
on Monday and an extension of the weak demand for cotton seen
since last week.

The market was likely to fall further in coming sessions,
although it could also turn positive by mid-June, when a better
assessment could be made of damage caused to the U.S. cotton
crop by this month's flooding and drought, traders said.

The key July cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
settled down 1.72 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $1.5389 per lb,
dealing from $1.5747 to $1.5321.

New-crop December finished unchanged at $1.1976,
moving between $1.1850 and $1.2178.

Other industrial commodities such as oil and copper fell
more sharply, losing as much as 3 percent each, as Europe's
debt crisis and further signs of a slowdown in China hit
investor confidence.

'Cotton's held remarkably well today, considering the
circumstances,' said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton
analyst in Mandeville, Louisiana.

'I expect the July contract to be trading $1.70 upwards and
December around $1.40 over the next few weeks, if demand
returns and we have a better idea of how the crop fared with
all these weather problems.'

Monday's cotton volume on ICE Futures U.S. was 70 percent
below the 30-day average, Thomson Reuters' preliminary data
showed.

Farmers along the swollen Mississippi River have had to
contend with severe floods lately that have drowned thousands
of acres of cotton. The actual number of acres lost in both
Texas and the U.S. Delta states will not be known until the
middle of June, analysts said.

December and the back months in the cotton market are being
supported by a severe drought savaging cotton crops in Texas,
the biggest cotton growing state in the country.