NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished with small losses Monday as the market seemed to be finely balanced between investor sales and mill/commercial buying in the market, analysts said.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. dropped 1.60 cents, or 1.5 percent, to close at 99.64 cents a lb, trading from 99.52 cents to $1.023.

The range was little changed from Friday's band of 99 cents to $1.02. Last Thursday, December ended at 99.29 cents a lb, marking the first time since since Aug. 11 that the second position cotton contract closed under the psychological $1 per lb mark.

Monday's volume of almost 11,700 lots was less than 5 percent under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.

"You've got a lot of technical resistance and a lot of fundamental support beneath the market," said independent cotton analyst Mike Stevens in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Traders said investors would sell cotton if it tries to get into the area of $1.04-$1.09/lb, but then mills and commercial accounts would step to the plate when the market dips under the psychological $1 a lb mark.

Analysts said the current trading pattern may hold for a while, with downward pressure provided by anxiety over the pace of global cotton demand given weak world economies and support stemming from mill buying on the dips.

Speculators cut their net long position in cotton to 26,937 lots, the lowest since June. The amount of investor interest in cotton weakened further as open interest stood at 146,985 lots as of Sept. 23, the lowest level since Aug. 29, the exchange said.

Total volume Friday in the cotton market was 14,873 lots, versus the previous session's 22,185 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.