* Weak outside markets put cotton under pressure
* Texas gets rains, but most of state still dry

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled easier
Wednesday on speculative sales in the face of weaker outside
markets and a firmer dollar, with the trade awaiting the release
of a government sales report Thursday for possible leads on
cotton's next move, analysts said.
July cotton on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange slipped
0.17 cent to settle at 89.51 cents per lb, trading from 88.85 to
89.94 cents.
New-crop December fell 0.36 cent to end at 86.58
cents after ranging from 85.96 to 87.18 cents.
"The market is lollygagging along just above support," said
independent analyst Mike Stevens in Louisiana.
Cotton was pressured by a drop in stock markets and the euro
following weak euro zone manufacturing. U.S. private sector jobs
data fueled concerns about a global economic slowdown.

Analysts said July cotton found support at 88 cents.
The market kept an eye on the weather in Texas, the top
cotton growing state in the country.
Texas, which saw its worst drought in a century strike last
year, could suffer another severe dry spell this year,
agriculture county officials said.
A report by the Agri Life department of Texas A&M University
said recovery from last year's drought was confined mostly to
the eastern half of the state. The top cotton areas are in the
western half of Texas.
"No one wants to say it loud, but it is in the back of our
minds as we watch plants on shallow soils turn brown from lack
of water," said David Winkler, an agriculture extension agent in
Bosque County, southwest of Fort Worth, Texas.
He and other agents give advice to farmers during the
season.
The market will be turning its attention to the U.S.
Agriculture Department's weekly export sales report on Thursday
and then the vital monthly supply/demand report to be released
next week. That report will show the first estimate of market
conditions in the coming 2012/13 marketing season (August/July).
Wednesday's estimated volume was slightly over 14,100 lots,
more than 40 percent under the 30-day norm, according to Thomson
Reuters data.
Open interest stood at 180,785 lots as of May 1, ICE Futures
U.S. exchange data showed.