NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished with
small gains on Friday on buying by small investors in lethargic
trade before a holiday weekend, analysts said.

The U.S. cotton market will be shut on Monday for Labor
Day.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 0.11 cent to close at $1.0589 per lb, trading from $1.0501
to $1.0705. For the week, the contract traded in a range from
$1.035 to $1.0723.

Thomson Reuters data showed that since mid-August, the
contract has traded at a low of $1.0174 hit on Aug. 25 and a
high of $1.09 set on Aug. 24.

Volume on Friday was over 7,700 lots, more than a third
under the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters data
showed.

'We have gone nowhere all week,' said independent cotton
analyst Mike Stevens of Mandeville, Louisiana.

Cash business slowed abysmally as fiber contracts dipped to
their lows for the day, following other markets down after the
release early on Friday of weak U.S. jobs data, traders said.

Players said they were monitoring newly formed Tropical
Storm Lee in the Gulf of Mexico even though reaction has been
muted because its impact on fiber contracts is mixed.

Rains from Lee would be welcome in southern Georgia because
the area has been hit by a dry spell. But for cotton farms in
Mississippi or Louisiana, cotton bolls are open and rain would
harm fiber quality.

Stevens said players are now looking ahead to the U.S.
Agriculture Department's monthly supply/demand report on Sept.
12, especially since most of the trade discounted the figure
for U.S. 2011/12 cotton production.

'The September report could get us out of this trading
range,' Stevens said.

The market will also look at the USDA's weekly crop
progress report next week to see how much damage Hurricane
Irene inflicted on cotton plants in North and South Carolina,
and Virginia.

The level of investor interest in the cotton market hit
148,432 lots as of Sept. 1, according to exchange data.