NEW YORK, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled higher
Tuesday on thin investor short-covering as the market tested
the upper end of its trading band while looking toward release
of a government crop report on Friday, analysts said.

Key March cotton futures gained 1.59 cents, or 1.7
percent, to finish at 93.81 cents per lb, moving from 91.51 to
93.63 cents.

Volume traded on Tuesday stood at around 11,300 lots, more
than 50 percent under the 30-day average, according to ICE
Futures data.

Cotton futures are 'moving toward the high end of the
trading range' after holding last week at 90 cents, said Mike
Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Mandeville,
Louisiana.

He said the moving averages sitting above the March cotton
contract are a target for investors buying into the market.

That would be the 20-day moving average (MA) at 94.33
cents, the 40-day MA at 96.44 cents and then the 55-day MA some
players use which is about 97.76 cents, according to Thomson
Reuters data.

Analysts said the market will likely stay in a band from 90
to 94 cents until the release on Friday of the U.S. Agriculture
Department's monthly supply/demand report.

USDA is expected to reduce its estimate for U.S. 2011/12
cotton production and U.S. 2011/12 cotton exports.

USDA had forecast U.S. 2011/12 cotton production at 16.3
million (480-lb bales) in its November supply data, from 16.61
million bales in the preceding month.

Another government report the trade will look at is the
USDA's weekly export sales report on Thursday that will gauge
the sales pace of U.S. cotton exports.

Open interest in the cotton market, usually taken as an
indicator of investor exposure in the market, came to 139,061
lots on Monday, from the prior session's 137,826 lots, exchange
data showed.

Volume traded Monday reached 10,239 lots, from the prior
session's 7,901 lots, ICE Futures U.S. data reported.