NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled higher
Tuesday on investor short-covering as the market climbed for
the third straight session after sinking last week to a
14-month low, analysts said.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 1.74 cents to end at 99.68 cents per lb, dealing from
97.57 to $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.

It was the first time in almost four weeks the December
contract broke a trading band ranging from 98 cents to $1.04.

Total volume traded Tuesday hit over 23,000 lots, about
two-thirds over the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters
data showed.

'Once you ran out of gas on one end, you try the other
end,' said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in
Mandeville, Louisiana.

The market hit an intra-session low of 96.47 cents, basis
December, last week and has not violated that level since.

There was trade buying on the way down and many speculative
accounts were short in cotton, setting the stage for a
short-covering advance, dealers said.

There was also some cautious optimism in the market about a
possible resolution to the European debt crisis although a
cancellation of European finance ministers meeting raised
doubts and caused world stocks to fall.

U.S. soybeans and corn clung to gains in choppy following
strength in crude oil and gold as the U.S. dollar pared gains.

Open interest in cotton, usually taken as an indicator of
investor exposure in cotton, stood at 158,624 lots as of Oct
24, its highest level since June 9. On Monday, open interest
stood at from 157,290 lots, the exchange said.

Total volume traded Monday in the cotton market reached
13,055 lots, against the prior tally of 15,069 lots, ICE
futures U.S. data showed.