NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished higher
Friday on investor buying as the market stabilized after
falling to a 14-month low the previous session, analysts said.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
rose 0.24 cent to close at 97.10 cents per lb, dealing from
96.47 to 98.80 cents. The market is down 4.7 percent for the
week.

On 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 also the first time in almost four weeks that the
market broke a trading band that had confined December in a
range from 98 cents to $1.04.

Total volume traded Friday was more than 12,800 lots, some
5 percent under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters
data showed.

The market is cautiously looking at a possible resolution
to the euro zone debt crisis next week, but players are worried
that demand from top consumer China will remain weak and the
pace of U.S. cotton exports will stay slow.

'I think the market has a real tough time getting back over
a $1 (per lb),' said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton
analyst in Mandeville, Louisiana.

He said it is now more likely that cotton prices, basis
December, will have a new trading band running from about 93 to
98 cents.

World stocks surged and the euro gained on Friday as
investors bet that European leaders will move forward in
resolving the zone's two-year old debt crisis.

Open interest in cotton, usually taken as an indicator of
investor exposure in cotton, stood at 156,328 lots as of Oct
20, from 152,825 lots on Oct 19, the exchange said. Open
interest is the highest since early June.

Total volume traded Thursday in the cotton market reached
22,529 lots, against the prior tally of 15,343 lots, ICE
futures U.S. data showed.