U.S. cotton closes down 4 pct, ends week 9 pct lower

* Market falls 5-cent limit intraday
* Light post-holiday volume
* Makes biggest daily losses on CRB (Recasts, adds closing U.S. price)

NEW YORK, Nov 26 - U.S. cotton futures finished down 4 percent on Friday, falling by their daily limit intraday and bouncing like a yo-yo in sideways dealings after dropping more than 25 percent from a record high hit two weeks ago.

The benchmark contract closed the week down 9.2 percent, the biggest weekly loss for the second-position contract since February 2009.

March cotton futures made the biggest losses for the day on the 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, just one session after being the biggest gainers. They were the biggest losers on the index the day before that.

Volume was thin, however, in a slightly abbreviated session following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday.

The benchmark March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. closed down 4.83 cents, or 4.1 percent, at $1.1176 per lb, slightly paring losses after falling by the daily limit of 5 cents to a session low at $1.1159.

The volatile market is down 26 percent from its record high at $1.5195 reached on Nov. 10, on heavy buying by Chinese mills and investors.

Prices were weighed down in thin dealings by negative sentiment in the broad marketplace, pressured by a drop in the euro to a two-month low against a resurgent dollar. Speculation mounted that Portugal would need to follow Ireland in seeking financial aid, further unsettling investors.

"For today the weakness is a light day. It's Friday after Thanksgiving. I think some of the mills have backed off," said Bill Raffety, senior analyst for futures brokerage Penson.

The CRB was down about 0.4 percent for most of the session.

Total volume was light at around 15,760 lots, up slightly from the 13,520 lots dealt on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2009, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.

The May cotton contract at China's Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange last traded down 1,115 yuan at 24,470 yuan per tonne.