By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Speculators’ net bearish bets on the U.S. dollar fell to a 7-week low in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net short dollar position was $29.95 billion for the week ended Feb. 2, compared with a net short position of $33.81 billion for the prior week.
U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and Canadian and Australian dollars.
In a wider measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the U.S. dollar posted a net short of $30.57 billion, down from $34.69 billion a week earlier.
The dollar, which has come under intense selling pressure in recent months amid growing appetite for riskier currencies, has shown some signs of revering the trend in recent session.
“The greenback has pieced together an impressive run of late as U.S. economic prospects show signs of a material brightening,” Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions, in Washington.
The dollar’s rebound from the multi-year lows hit earlier this year has been aided by a rise in Treasury yields the prospect of a growth boost from another round of U.S. fiscal stimulus.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar up about 0.5% for the week.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by David Gregorio)
