NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Cotton futures lost nearly 2
percent of their value on Friday, hit by a bearish government
crop report that pointed to a weakening trend in global fiber
demand.

'The bearish influence from the report came from their
failure to raise exports and in the world numbers,' said Mike
Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Mandeville,
Louisiana.

The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) forecast U.S.
2011/12 cotton exports at 11.3 million (480-lb bales),
unchanged from its November estimate.

U.S. 2011/12 cotton production fell to 15.83 million bales
compared with 16.3 million in its November supply data.

Key March cotton futures tumbled 1.62 cents or 1.8
percent to finish at 90.43 cents per lb, after dealing between
90.15 and 92.75 cents.

'With this kind of report, not only should we be limit
down, we should be lock limit down,' said Sharon Johnson,
senior cotton analyst at commodities brokerage Penson Futures.

'But the volume is light. There are some macro events that
are lending some stability.'

Global stocks rebounded and the euro rose against the
dollar after nearly all European Union leaders agreed to build
a closer fiscal union to address the region's debilitating debt
crisis.

'If we lived in a bubble and it was just the USDA numbers,
and we had the specs in there and the volume that we have had
in recent months, I think we would be limit down,' Johnson
said.

Volume was a paltry 10,800 lots in late Friday business,
down more than half the 30-day norm, according to preliminary
Thomson Reuters data.

Open interest in the cotton market, usually taken as an
indicator of investor exposure in the market, grew to 141,311
lots on Thursday, from the prior session's 140,708 lots,
exchange data showed.

Volume traded Thursday slowed to 7,682 lots from the prior
day's 9,344 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data reported.