NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - Cotton futures ended easier
Monday on investor sales as a lack of leads and the negative
mood brought on by the U.S. debt crisis conspired to keep fiber
contracts on the defensive, analysts said.

The key December cotton futures on ICE Futures U.S.
fell 1.88 cents to end at 96.76 cents per lb, trading from
95.13 to 98.99 cents.

It was the lowest close for the second-position contract
since mid-September 2010, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Business was light. Total market volume hit around 8,000
lots at 2:46 p.m. EDT (1746 GMT), potentially the lowest since
May 23 and over 50 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson
Reuters preliminary data showed.

'We're in the doldrums,' said independent cotton analyst
Mike Stevens in Louisiana.

Mills are shying away from cotton futures because they are
wrestling with an 'overhang' of bumper supplies that has yet to
be drawn down, analysts said.

The stalemate in talks in Washington to raise the U.S. debt
ceiling added to the glum mood in cotton futures because
outside markets like stocks slid and safe-haven funds flocked
into gold and Swiss francs.

'The outside markets are not helping any,' said Stevens.
Traders are now looking toward the USDA's weekly crop
progress report to gauge the condition of the U.S. cotton crop.