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Cotton futures

end lower

NEW YORK: New York cotton futures ended lower, with local selling noted late in the session, traders said, while fund buying provided modest support.

"Everyone came in long figuring the market would go up but it didn't go up much, so they got out," one trader said. "Then the specs began buying at yesterday's low of 81.60 (cents a lb), which brought the market up again."

Ernest Simon, a cotton specialist with Prudential Securities, said the market was caught up in "foolish panic" over pest infestation in the southeastern U.S. that has characterized recent trade.

Today was the first session in five days that the market failed to rise the intraday limit.

Most active December ended at 82.21 cents a lb, off 0.84 cents.

Spot October settled at 84.46, down 0.89, while next year's March contract closed at 83.08, off 0.70. The back months settled 0.30 to 0.70 lower.-Reuter