NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Cotton futures ended higher on
Monday on investor short-covering in light trade as players
looked ahead to the release of a key government crop report
this week, analysts said.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 1.36 cents to end at $1.0334 per lb, trading from $1.0211
to $1.039. The market has traded in a rough band from 98 cents
to $1.04 for the last 12 sessions.

Volume traded on Monday totaled slightly more than 8,000
lots, over a third under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson
Reuters data showed.

'It's a dollar (-inspired) advance,' said Jobe Moss, an
analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas.

Cotton was also recovering after losing almost 10 percent
in value since the middle of September, dealers said.

'It's just a progression in a technical recovery,' said
Moss.

The market is now looking toward the monthly supply/demand
report from the U.S. Agriculture Department due at 8:30 a.m.
EDT (1230 GMT) on Wednesday.

Traders said they would be looking for confirmation that
the USDA would gradually reduce its estimate for the U.S.
cotton crop in 2011/12 at 16.56 million 480-lb bales.

Most in the trade expect a reduction after drought ravaged
the crop in Texas, the top cotton-growing area in the country,
and in southern Georgia, the second-biggest producing area of
the United States.

Moss said the key question would be the USDA's estimate of
cotton demand, especially as a poor macroeconomic outlook has
raised the prospect of global recession.

'The big question is will business pick up,' he said.
Open interest in cotton, usually taken as an indicator of
investor exposure, stood at 153,958 lots as of Oct. 7, from
153,340 lots on Oct. 6, the exchange said.

Volume traded on Friday in the cotton market reached 7,552
lots, the lowest amount since Sept. 16, ICE Futures U.S. data
showed.