* Cotton hits record peak above $1.44 per lb
* U.S. cotton prices remain at heavy discount to China
NEW YORK, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures rose on Friday, hitting a record peak for a fourth consecutive day and ending higher despite losing some momentum late in the session as the dollar rebounded.
"The reason futures are not any higher than they are is because the dollar is up and a lot of the other commodities are on a net basis, unchanged," said Sharon Johnson, sr cotton analyst at First Capitol Group in Atlanta up
The benchmark December cotton contract CTZ0 vaulted to a record peak at $1.4460 per lb, before ending up 1.78 cents at $1.4223 per lb, the loftiest settlement close in history for the market.
In China, cotton prices rose more than 3 percent, with the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange's May cotton contract CCFc4 up 1,490 yuan at 31,235 yuan per tonne.
"China has been trending higher and pulling futures with it," Johnson said.
For the year, cotton is up nearly 80 percent due to bullish fundamentals. It is the best performing commodity in the Reuters Jefferies CRB index .CRB. (Graphic: link.reuters.com/kew48n )
China is the world's largest cotton consumer, and is likely to have 5 percent lower cotton output this year. Low government stocks have made it difficult for Beijing to control prices. [ID:nTOE6A306L]
Demand for cotton from the Chinese mills has been surging, with prices rising from exporters due to supply shortages and an empty pipeline of deliverable supplies against futures.
Analysts said U.S. cotton prices are at a heavy discount and need to catch up to internal Chinese cotton prices of $2 to $2.20 per lb and world prices in the closely followed Cotlook A index, quoted at an average of $1.55 per lb.
"Historically, the index is quoted 7-9 cents above futures, but over the last few months the index has consistently been 15 to 20 cents above futures," said Mike Stevens, an independent cotton analyst in Louisiana.
"This has kept futures looking relatively cheap to the rest of the world," he said.
Trading conditions remained heavy. Volume traded in the cotton market stood at 62,400 lots by 3:15 PM EDT (1915 GMT), about 130 percent above the 30-day average at 27,160 lots, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. PRICES AT 2:57 P.M. EDT (1857 GMT):
SETTLE NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
CHNG CHNG VOL CTZ0 142.23 1.78 1.3% 138.55 144.60 24,019 CTH1 138.11 1.45 1.1% 134.88 140.70 25,357 TOTAL MARKET VOLUME OPEN INTEREST
CURRENT Nov 04 30D AVG Nov 04 NET CHNG ICE Cotton 62,400 39,803 27,614 238,564 -257