Feb 1 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures climbed on Thursday to a three-and-a-half-month high, as weekly data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed a jump in sales and another marketing-year high for exports.

* Cotton contracts for March CTc1 rose 1.49 cents, or 1.8%, to 86.65 cents per lb by 12:32 p.m. ET (1732 GMT) after hitting their highest since Oct. 10 at 86.9 cents a lb earlier.

* Prices increased more than 5% in January, their best month in eight.

* The USDA weekly sales report showed net sales for 2023/2024 of 349,400 running bales, up 69% from last week, while exports climbed to another marketing-year high of 396,700 bales. EXP/COT

* Weekly shipments had stayed above 200,000 bales in five of the previous six reports.

* The data points to "very good sales again in a long line of good sales for three months ... and finally, the shipments have caught up," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland.

* "The speculators and the funds were very hesitant to buy anything up until about three weeks ago, and now they're piling in on the long side."

* Speculators switched to a net long position of 21,976 contracts in ICE U.S. cotton futures in the week of Jan. 23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said last Friday. CFTC/

* Traders looked to the USDA's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report for February due next week. UDSA/EST

* "I expect the carry-out to still come in below 3 million bales. That's just too tight and at some point this spring, I look for the market to drive the 90-cent level again."

* In the grains market, Chicago wheat futures fell, weighed down by weak demand and falling export prices in Russia, while soybeans and corn also lost ground on the prospect of ample supply. GRA/

Reporting by Deep Vakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal