NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures eased in choppy trade on Wednesday, as broad weakness in grains markets offset support from hopes for higher demand driven by a swifter vaccine-fuelled economic recovery with the focus turning to a federal export sales report.

The cotton contract for March was down 0.08 cent, or 0.1%, at 72.11 cents per lb by 12:27 p.m. EST (1727 GMT). Earlier in the session, prices slipped to their lowest since Nov. 18 at 71.35 cents.

"Cotton market is following the grains market and grains market bounced back a bit and cotton is doing the same thing," said Rogers Varner, president of Varner Brokerage in Cleveland.

However, "demand for cotton is still good, export sales have been good. ... The infection rate will be lot lower after the vaccine is available and the cotton market is looking forward to a better period," he added.

Chicago soybeans and corn were trading at their lowest in two weeks, weighed down by fund-driven liquidation and improving crop weather in Brazil and Argentina.

Britain's initial approval of Pfizer Inc's Covid-19 vaccine should give Americans confidence as the drugmaker next week moves further toward seeking US approval, US Health Secretary Alex Azar said on Wednesday.

Market participants now await the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report due on Thursday. Last week, the USDA weekly export sales report showed net sales of 354,700 running bales (RB) for 2020/21, up noticeably from the previous week and up 84% from the prior 4-week average.

Total futures market volume fell by 6,375 to 16,482 lots Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Dec.02 totalled 112,728 480-lb bales, down from 117,293 in the previous session.