* Market hit by profit-taking after reaching 2-month peak
* Trade awaits USDA sowings data on Friday
NEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished
mostly lower o n Thursday in profit-taking off a near two-month
high, as players prepared for a long-anticipated government
report on cotton sowings in 2012, analysts said.
The benchmark May contract on ICE Futures U.S. fell
0.49 cent to close at 93.07 cents per lb, after dealing from
93.07 to 94.39 cents. Wednesday's close at 94.03 cents was the
loftiest on the spot cotton contract since Feb. 7.
Volume came to around 16,850 lots, about 15 percent over the
30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
"I think they're waiting (for the report)," said Sharon
Johnson, senior cotton analyst at commodities brokerage Penson
Futures in Atlanta.
She was referring to the annual potential plantings report
from the U.S. Agriculture Department, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230
GMT) on Friday.
A prime catalyst for the move up was tight supplies in the
old-crop May and July cotton contracts <0#CT:>.
While world 2011/12 cotton ending stocks were pegged by the
U.S. government at a hefty 62.32 million 480-lb bales, Johnson
and other traders said the market was discounting the bearish
tint of the figure.
She said up to 40 percent of global stocks were in the
"hands of China and India", meaning cotton was available only
for their mills and "not accessible" for the world market.
The tight supply situation is thus reflected only in May and
July, with the new-crop December cotton contract adding
0.03 cent to close at 90.61 cents.
A Thomson Reuters survey of industry participants showed
they expect U.S. 2012 cotton sowings to be down about 13 percent
from last year, or about 12.74 million to 12.76 million acres,
because of higher prices in grains such as soybeans.

In early February, the industry group National Cotton
Council had pegged U.S. 2012 cotton sowings at 13.63 million
acres (5.5 million hectares), down 7.4 percent from 2011 cotton
plantings of 14.72 million acres.
The main reason for the switch in acres, traders say, is the
higher price of grains such as soybeans <0#S:> compared with
cotton.
Open interest, an indicator of investor exposure, fell for
the third day in a row after rising for 12 straight sessions. It
stood at 187,509 lots as of March 28.
On Friday, open interest in the cotton market was at 190,909
lots, the highest since Feb. 9, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.