Currency speculators increased bets against the US dollar in the latest week, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. The value of the dollar's net short position rose to $12.4 billion in the week ended January 4, from $8.85 billion the previous week, according to Reuters and CFTC calculations.
Speculators slightly trimmed bets against the euro in the latest week as the currency rebounded at the end of December on year-end flows and after it failed to break below its 200-day moving average. The euro, however, came under renewed selling pressure in January amid concerns about the high debt levels in Portugal and Spain and on signs of a strong-than-expected US economic recovery.
To be short a currency is to bet it will decrease in value, while being long a currency is a bet that its value will rise. The CFTC data also showed speculators increased their bets in favour of the Japanese yen and Canadian dollar in the latest week, but trimmed long positions in the Swiss franc and Australian dollar. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from the net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.
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