NEW YORK, Dec 16 (Reuters) - U.S. cotton futures settled
higher on Thursday on speculative buying and the market's
momentum could push fiber contracts up further before the
year-end holidays, brokers said.

Cotton is the best performer in the Reuters-Jefferies
commodity index, up over 80 percent in the year to date.

(Graphic: http://link.reuters.com/kew48n)

The key March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S.
gained 3.98 cents to end at $1.4612 per lb. It traded from
$1.4258 to $1.4614 -- up by the 4.00 cent daily limit.

But trading volume was thin at an estimated 12,400 lots,
two-thirds below the 30-day average at 33,400 lots, Thomson
Reuters preliminary data showed.

Sharon Johnson, senior cotton analyst at commodity brokers
Penson Futures in Atlanta, said mostly speculative buying
boosted cotton contracts.

She estimated the market may try to 'put in a double top'
around recent highs near $1.52 in the days ahead.
Cotton values in top consumer China provided little
inspiration. The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange's key May
futures last traded at 27,640 yuan per tonne, down 20 yuan.

Since trading at $1.1085 on Nov. 23, U.S. cotton prices
have taken off largely on sustained mill buying from countries
such as China.

For the first time since early September, U.S. cotton
export sales fell below 300,000 running bales (RBs, 500 lbs
each). A weekly report by the U.S. Agriculture Department
showed U.S. cotton sales at 258,300 RBs, from 436,600 RBs in
last week's report.

The trade had expected sales of 300,000 to 400,000 RBs.
Open interest in the U.S. cotton market stood at 205,452
lots as of Dec. 15, ICE Futures U.S. data showed.