Speculators boost bearish bets on US dollar

NEW YORK: Speculators' net bearish bets on the US dollar grew in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the net short dollar position was $9.51 billion for the week ended June 9, compared with a net short position of $8.17 billion for the week before that.

The net short position was the largest bearish position speculators have held in six weeks, the data showed.

US 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.

Traders who are long on a currency believe it will rise in value, while being short points to a bearish bias.

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 of $8.88 billion, up from $7.72 billion a week earlier.

The dollar, a safe haven, came under pressure in recent months as investors shrugged off worries about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic and piled back into riskier assets.

The US Dollar Index, which measures the greenback's strength against six major currencies, is down about 6% since hitting a more than three-year peak in March.

The index rose about 0.3% this week as renewed fears of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases in the United States and dour economic forecasts from the US Federal Reserve sparked a sharp selloff on Wall Street on Thursday and boosted demand for safe havens.

"While the dollar's downward trajectory appears intact, it stands to benefit from the highly uncertain road ahead for US and global growth," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst, at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.