ICE cotton futures shed over 1 percent on Friday due to favorable weather conditions in major producing areas and fund-selling, posting a second straight weekly decline. "There is no new information about demand to compensate for the continuous good weather, and that didn't help firm prices," said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York.

The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 1.44 percent at 77.77 cents per lb on Friday and was down 1.4 percent for the week. The contract likely fell on Friday in sympathy with weaker prices on China's Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, according to INTL FCStone analyst Andy Ryan.

Speculators raised their net long position in cotton for a third straight week in the week to May 2, by 3,446 contracts to 98,805, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday. The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 1.14 cents, or 1.44 percent, at 77.77 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 77.71 and 79.02 cents a lb. Total futures market volume rose by 6,974 to 21,090 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,456 to 263,028 contracts in the previous session. China cotton futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange were down 1.78 percent to 15,185 yuan per tonne.

Copyright Reuters, 2017