Speculators reduced their net short US dollar bets earlier this week to their lowest level since mid-November, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net short dollar positions, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars, was $458.0 million in the week ended Dec. 29.
That was lower than the prior week's net short position of $2.18 billion.
In a wider measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the US dollar posted a net short position valued at $1.079 billion on Tuesday, which was the lowest net short position since late June.
A week earlier, speculative net shorts in the dollar by this measure were worth $3.287 billion. The latest pullback in net speculative bearish bets against the dollar came even as the greenback posted its worst annual performance since 2003 on a less certain US economic outlook following last week's major tax overhaul. In contrast, the euro booked its best year against the dollar in 14 years on an improving view of the euro zone and some expectations the European Central Bank may consider raising interest rates in 2018.
Speculative net longs in the euro grew to 92,148 contracts from 86,224 a week earlier. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
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