NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Cotton futures ended higher
Tuesday on investor buying in light trade, with the slow pace
of trade seen likely given the upcoming holiday weekend,
analysts said.

The cotton market is shut Monday for Labor Day.
The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 0.50 cent to close at $1.0542 per lb, trading from $1.0364
to $1.07. The range was little changed from the trading band
seen the last three sessions.

Total volume traded Monday stood at 5,502 lots, the lowest
level traded since Dec. 29, 2009, ICE Futures U.S. data
showed.

The total traded Tuesday was around 8,000 lots, over a
third below the 30-day average, preliminary Thomson Reuters
data showed.

'The odds are we will be in this range for a while,' said
independent cotton analyst Mike Stevens.

Traders said cotton futures climbed on likely
end-of-the-month buying by small index funds or mill fixations
in the market.

They said the December contract seems pinned between the
psychological $1 and $1.01 level to the recent top at $1.09.

Some support may also be coming from possible damage to
cotton plants in Virginia, North and South Carolina. Rains
falling on open cotton bolls would harm cotton quality.

The U.S. Agriculture Department's weekly crop progress
report on Monday showed 40 percent of North Carolina's cotton
bolls are open for the week ending Aug. 28, and the figure for
South Carolina is 11 percent and 8 percent for Virginia.

The storm hit those states on August 28.

Traders said market players are now looking toward the
release of next month's USDA monthly supply/demand report to
get a better idea about world and U.S. supply/demand conditions
in the 2011/12 marketing year (August/July).

The level of investor interest in the cotton market hit
146,908 lots as of Aug. 29, according to exchange data.