* Strong Chinese prices boost U.S. market
* Weak dollar buoys fiber contracts
* Index fund rolling eyed this week (Recasts, updates prices, market activity to U.S. close)
By Rene Pastor
NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures ended the daily limit up on Monday as speculative funds and investors bought aggressively due to strong cotton prices in China and early weakness in the dollar, analysts said.
Cotton hit its session high early as the dollar slid and stayed there even as the U.S. currency firmed against the euro and yen after stronger manufacturing data, though those gains in the dollar were fleeting. Currency markets are bracing for more monetary easing from the Federal Reserve this week. [FRX/]
A weaker dollar normally boosts commodities because most are denominated in the greenback. Cotton also enjoys strong fundamentals: tight stocks and strong mill demand.
The benchmark December cotton contract CTZ0 increased the 4.00-cent daily limit to finish at $1.2926 per lb. The session low was at $1.258.
The total amount traded was slightly below average. Cotton volume reached 24,000 lots, about 7 percent below the 30-day average of 26,000 lots, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
In China, the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange's May cotton contract CCFK1 last traded on Monday at 28,510 yuan per tonne, having hit a lifetime peak of 28,585 yuan.
"The Chinese are the main drivers here," said Ron Lawson, cotton expert at commodities brokerage logicadvisors.com in Sonoma, California. "We haven't seen enough demand destruction (in cotton)."
"(The) lower U.S. dollar and sharply higher prices in China are feeding the bull this morning," Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana, said.
Analysts noted that the bulk of the U.S. cotton harvest has already been sold, another factor that has buoyed prices. The United States is the world's biggest cotton exporter.
Zhang Hongzhou, analyst with Galaxy Futures Ltd, said China's cotton mills had been booking orders of U.S. cotton, with signed imports of more than 1.0 million tonnes for next year.
"The U.S. has sold most of its cotton, there is no reason for prices to fall. Many (domestic) cotton mills have signed for forward-month cargoes because near-month supply is very tight," Zhang said.
Lawson estimated that 80 percent of the U.S. cotton crop estimated at 18.87 million (480-lb) bales has been sold.
Cotton is the biggest gainer in the Reuters-Jefferies CRB commodity index in the year to date, rising nearly 65 percent -- higher than more widely followed commodities such as gold or the grain market's heavily traded corn futures. (Graphic: link.reuters.com/kew48n )
While fundamentals in cotton are bullish, Lawson said other factors in the futures market may have an impact.
For one, analysts said, the market expects the Fed to announce on Wednesday a new round of government debt purchases, or "quantitative easing" which would flood the U.S. economy with money in an attempt to spur growth.
They said the other factor which could affect cotton futures would be if investment funds adjust their positions in cotton.
Lou Barbera, a cotton expert at brokerage VIP Commodities, said the market focus would soon turn to the rolling by index funds of positions out of spot December and into back months.
Cotton hit a record in October, rising more than 20 percent that month and nearly 80 percent since the start of the rally in July.
October's gains were unprecedented, traders said. Some believe such a rally will never be repeated.
Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co. in Moultrie, Georgia, said high cotton prices had "allowed farmers to (sell) cotton at prices they have never seen or their granddaddies have never seen and they will never see again". PRICES AS OF 1508 EDT (1908 GMT)
SETTLE NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
CHNG CHNG VOL CTZ0 129.26 4.00 3.2% 125.80 129.26 10,340 CTH1 124.45 4.00 3.3% 121.01 124.45 7,228