* July/December spread trade picks up
* Trade eyes USDA export data on Thursday

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished lower
Wednesday amid spread trading between benchmark July and
new-crop December, with traders awaiting the release of a weekly
government export sales report on Thursday, analysts said.
July cotton on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange fell
0.66 cent to close at 90.80 cents per lb, dealing from 90.60 to
92.45 cents.
New-crop December slipped 0.07 cent to finish at
88.64 cents per lb, trading from 88.18 to 89.55 cents.
The liquidation of positions in the spot May contract
has proceeded smoothly, with open interest in the contract down
to 271 lots or 28,229 (480-lb) bales as of April 24, exchange
data showed.
Independent analyst Mike Stevens said positions in May "have
been moved" to July in an orderly manner.
Most of the session was dominated by spread trading as
investors sold July and bought December contracts, dealers said.
Benchmark July continued to trade in a band between 87 and
94 cents, a range it has maintained since the start of March,
Thomson Reuters data showed.
The market awaited the release at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT)
on Thursday of the U.S. Agriculture Department's weekly export
sales report.
Stevens said the trade would be satisfied to see a "modest
amount" of net upland cotton sales between 75,000 and 150,000
running bales (RBs, 500-lbs each) of cotton.
Wednesday's estimated volume was near 13,500 lots, about 45
percent under the 30-day norm, according to Thomson Reuters
data.
Open interest amounted to 182,843 lots as of April 20,
falling for the third straight session, ICE Futures U.S.
exchange data showed.