NEW YORK, Jan 8: NY cotton futures settled firmer on Monday due to steady speculative buying in the market, with operators looking toward news from the upcoming Beltwide Cotton meeting and the USDA monthly supply report on Friday.

Key March cotton rose 0.94 cent to settle at 37.56 cents a lb, in the top half of its 36.70-37.70 cents trading range. May added 0.90 cent to 38.99 cents.

Increases in deferred months ranged from 0.59-0.95 cent.

A little light spec buying came into the market, Hibbie Barrier of the Jernigan-FIMAT group in Nashville, Tennessee said.

Cotton prices seem to be pinned in a range between 35-38 cents, having recovered from a plunge in October 2001 to near 30-year lows.

Cotton started on a firm note, but lost ground when scattered trade and local pressure drove futures down to its lows, floor sources said.

The market then came charging back when speculative and fund interest pushed cotton into higher territory going into the last quarter-hour of business, they said.

Estimated final volume reached 5,000 lots from the previous 13,132 lots.

Technically, brokers said they believe support in the March cotton contract would be at 36.50 and 35.60 cents, with resistance seen at 38 cents.

Otherwise, most of the cotton trade was gearing up for the start of the annual Beltwide Cotton conference set to get under way in Atlanta, Georgia from Tuesday through the end of the week.

Traders said they will also be looking to release of the USDA monthly production and supply/ demand report due out on Friday, with the focus expected to be on any increase in the estimate for China’s cotton production, a further decline in global and US cotton consumption, and another rise in global cotton ending stocks.—Reuters