Cotton futures down as speculators hold off ahead of rainfall

Cotton futures fell on Tuesday as speculators held off on bets amid easing concerns over weather in the United States.

"The south eastern US is finally going to receive some general rainfall and I think the speculators who are the backbone of this rally are waiting on a new technical achievement," said Keith Brown, principal at cotton brokers Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia.

The US Department of Agriculture's crop progress report, released on Monday after market close, showed that 50 percent of cotton crops in the US were in good to excellent conditions, down from last week's 52 percent.

"We had a chance for a record high close (on Monday) yesterday; it failed going into the close," said Louis Barbera of ICAP Cotton

"I think people are just a little unsure of what's going drive the market to the next rally up," he added.

The December cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.4 cent, or 0.54 percent, at 73.98 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 73.17 and 74.55 cents a lb.

Total futures market volume fell by 4,877 to 21,544 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,564 to 236,890 contracts in the previous session.

The dollar index was down 0.67 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was down 0.50 percent.