ICE cotton falls as mixed export sales fails to lift demand woes

Sept 6 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures fell nearly 1% on Friday, hurt by uninspiring export sales data and as investors used small gains to sell the natural fiber, which has been hit by lack of demand. * Cotton contracts for December settled down 0.54 cent, or 0.91 %, at 58.58 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 58.03 and 59.86 cents a lb.

* Price for the contract fell 0.4% this week.

* "It has been a range-bound week. Export numbers are kind of mixed. ... Sales have come higher than the previous reported week and this can trigger some buying, but the commodities market behaving like a black sheep today," said Jon Marcus, president of Lakefront Futures and Options brokerage in Chicago.

* "Nobody wants to be too long. Investors are scared of global slowdown and trade war. As soon as these commodities gets some boost, the selling interest overshoots buying."

* ICE cotton jumped over 1% in the previous session on weather concerns, easing trade tensions.

* Among other commodities, the most-active corn contract on the

Chicago Board Of Trade , CBOT soybeans and CBOT wheat

were all down.

* Weekly data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Friday showed net sales of 162,800 running bales compared with 146,000 running bales reported last week,

* Meanwhile, on the trade war front, China and the United States on Thursday agreed to hold high-level talks in early October in Washington.

* The United States is the world's biggest exporter of cotton, while China is the largest consumer.

* "The government is now the ‘buyer of last resort’ via its loan program, so we don’t expect to see any selling pressure from the trade below 57 cents," British merchant Plexus Cotton said in a note.

* "In fact, last week has shown that certain elements of the trade use dips to go bargain hunting. However, if the market were to lift its head above 60 cents, scale up producer selling would probably intensify in an effort to lock in better prices than the loan."

* Total futures market volume rose by 1,870 to 24,605 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,178 to 226,049 contracts in the previous session. (Reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)