NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled lower
Tuesday on investor sales and analysts feel the inability of
the market to go past topside technical targets could lead to
further losses in fiber contracts.

The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
fell 1.21 cents to close at $1.0524 per lb, moving from $1.0427
to $1.0725. It was an inside day since the range was within
Monday's $1.0416 to $1.0782 band.

Total traded volume was almost 5,800 lots, nearly 60
percent below the 30-day norm, Reuters data showed.

'Cotton continues to stall out,' said independent analyst
Mike Stevens in Mandeville, Louisiana.

He said the market 'becomes more vulnerable if it cannot go
past $1.08, $1.09 (per lb)', basis the key December cotton
contract.

A fall in cotton would run into initial support around
$1.04 and then the psychological $1 level, traders said.

Fundamentally, the weekly crop progress ratings from the
U.S. Agriculture Department provided no surprises for the
cotton market because they were little changed from the
readings of the preceding week.

USDA said 22 percent of the cotton crop was in very poor
shape and 19 percent in poor condition, versus the previous
week's 21 very poor and 19 percent poor.

Open interest in cotton futures was 145,425 lots as of Aug.
22, almost 5,000 above the 140,442 lots on Aug. 11 which was
then the lowest in over two weeks, ICE Futures U.S. data
showed.

Total volume traded last Monday hit 9,649 lots, against the
volume on Tuesday last week of 7,113 lots, which was the lowest
level of business since May 23, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.