NEW YORK, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Cotton futures ended lower
Friday on investor sales due to fears of an economic slowdown
in top consumer China, as the market ended the third quarter of
2011 with sizable losses as recession worries hit the market.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
fell 2.03 cents to end at $1.0019 per lb, trading from 99.55
cents to $1.03. The market has been pinned in a rough range
from 99 cents to $1.0317 over the past five sessions.

Cotton is the seventh worst performing commodity on the
Reuters Jefferies commodity index.

The market is down 15.7 percent on the quarter. It fell 5.3
percent on the month and is down 1.4 percent on the week.

Total volume traded Friday hit almost 13,900 lots, around
12 percent over the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters
data showed.

Independent cotton analyst Mike Stevens in Mandeville,
Louisiana, said news that China's manufacturing sector
contracted for a third consecutive month
deflated the positive sentiment from Thursday's close.

'Fears of Chinese economic slowdown spread like wildfire,'
Stevens said, adding the losses in the grains market
exacerbated the glum mood in fiber contracts.

With macro fears over another global recession dominating
trading in cotton and other financial markets, cotton futures
were under pressure for most of the quarter.

Cotton futures on ICE posted its worst two-quarter
performance since 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed. It also
made fiber contracts the seventh worst performing commodity in
the Reuters Jefferies commodity index.

The amount of investor interest in cotton improved slightly
as open interest stood at 149,071 lots as of Sept. 29, up
slightly from 147,974 lots on Sept 28, the exchange said.

Total volume traded Thursday in the cotton market reached
16,867 lots, versus the previous session's count at 10,204
lots, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.