* Cotton could be rangebound until current crop harvest in
Dec.
* US futures find resistance around 100-day moving average
* Cotton market awaits USDA supply/demand report Thursday
NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Cotton futures ended a tad
higher in quiet trade on Wednesday, as investors stayed on the
sidelines awaiting trading cues from a U.S. government monthly
crop report.
New York cotton for December delivery inched up 0.26
cent to settle at 72.10 cents per lb on ICE Futures U.S, with
trading volume at 40 percent below its 250-day average,
preliminary Reuters data showed.
The benchmark contract traded in a range from 71.66-72.31
cents, finding resistance just above its 100-day moving average
at 72.36 cents.
The cotton market was awaiting the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's (USDA) monthly report due on Thursday for any
signs of damage to new crops in west Texas, the major U.S.
growing region, after recent wet weather.
Analysts, however, said that cotton will likely to
rangebound until selling related to the year-end harvest of this
year's crop subsides.
"What will have more of an impact on cotton will be that
when we start getting the acreage estimates for next year," said
Shawn Hackett, president of Florida-based Hackett Financial
Advisors.
Cotton prices tend to bottom toward December when top
suppliers including the United States, India and China start
planting next year's crop, Hackett said.
Year to date, cotton prices were down almost 20 percent due
to oversupply and weak demand amid a global economic slowdown.
Analysts said it may be too early, however, for the USDA to
adjust its output forecasts, yet any cuts due to wet weather are
unlikely to dent the global record inventory of over 76 million
bales in the current season to end-July 2013 either.
China, which is the world's biggest producer and consumer of
cotton, is expected to harvest 6.9 million tonnes of the fiber
this year, a decline of 4.2 percent from a year ago due to a
smaller sowing area, an official from the country's top planning
agency said in remarks.
