NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled higher Wednesday on investor buying as the market climbed for the fourth straight session and analysts said fiber contracts are right back into the recent trading range.
The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. rose 0.64 cent to end at $1.0032 per lb, dealing from 99.48 cents to $1.0073.
The session top is barely changed from Tuesday's contract peak of $1.0063. Last Thursday, the contract fell by almost 3 percent to end at 96.86 cents in the lowest settlement for the spot contract since September 2010.
The market hit an intra-session low of 96.47 cents last week but rebounded quickly off that level. It was the first time in almost 4 weeks the December contract broke a trading band ranging from 98 cents to $1.04.
The way cotton is behaving, independent analyst Mike Stevens in Louisiana said December is "back into that old trading (band) of 98 (cents) to $1.04."
Dealers said when cotton could not extend itself below 96 cents, trade buying pushed the market back up to the psychological $1 a lb level.
"It probably has enough strength to go back to $1.02 (basis December), but not get to $1.04," one explained.
Total volume traded Wednesday hit over 11,400 lots, about 15 percent under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
Analysts said the market was seemingly content to wait for the results of attempts by European leaders to come up with a formula to solve the debt crisis there. Financial market investors were skittsh ahead of an EU summit later on Wednesday, with conflicting prospects for a resolution of the crisis keeping most financial assets in a holding pattern.
U.S. grains and oil values were weaker, with many players again waiting on euro zone news.
Open interest, usually taken as an indicator of investor exposure, stood at 159,357 lots as of Oct. 25, its highest level since June 9, exchange data showed.
Total volume Tuesday reached 25,631 lots, the heaviest amount traded since Sept. 8 and almost double the prior tally of 13,055 lots, according to exchange data.
