* Prices pierce support at 100-day MA
* Pending stocks rise 40 pct
* Certified inventory still at ICE record lows

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures sank 2.2
percent on Wednesday, as technical selling accelerated after the
market pierced its 100-day moving average, with the market
giving up all the ground it gained last week.
Falling for a second day, the most-actively traded December
cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. settled at 72.67
cents per lb, down 2.2 percent.
A late flurry of buying helped prices move off their
intraday low of 72.06 cents, but prices have fallen over 8
percent since peaking at five-month highs just below 80 cents
last Thursday.
"We are still not sure what caused the recent price spike
and the rapid decline makes it all the more puzzling," said Andy
Ryan and Gary Raines from INTL FCStone.
The market may find support at 72.22 cents in the short
term, but the bearish outlook, with analysts expecting record
crops and falling demand, may still send prices through the
psychologically key 70-cent mark.
"The market seems eager to retest the fundamental and
technical support just above 70 cents. If it doesn't hold, there
are a lot of new longs that may need to hit the exits," Ryan and
Raines said in a note.
Trading the December-March spread dominated much of the over
28,000 lots that changed hands on the day. The backwardation,
with nearby prices above March, narrowed to just 0.15 cent after
the heavy selling into December. The March contract fell
almost 2 percent to 72.52 cents.
Signs of increasing availability emerged as the U.S. harvest
gets underway with more fibers awaiting certification. Bales
pending review rose 736 480-lb bales, up 40 percent, to 2,540
bales overnight.
Even so certified stocks at 8,446 48-lb bales are still at
their lowest levels since ICE records began in 2002.
Cotton's fall was heavier than the broader market and came
even as the grains market, usually a support, rallied - wheat
jumped after Ukraine slapped a ban on exports in a bid to
preserve domestic supplies after crops were damaged by drought.

The Thomson Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global
benchmark for commodities, dropped 0.73 percent to its lowest
level since early August, dragged lower by oil and gold.

Another day of anemic corporate earnings hurt sentiment amid
rising concerns about the deepening debt crisis in Europe as
Spain moved closer to seeking a bailout.