Currency speculators boosted their bets in favour of the US dollar in the latest week to their largest since June 2010, according to Reuters data and figures from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $23.199 billion in the week ended April 10 from $17.795 billion the previous week.
Dollar net longs in June 2010 totalled $23.6 billion, Reuters estimates show. Data also showed a big jump in euro net shorts of 101,364 contracts this week from 79,480 previously. To be short a currency is to bet it will decline in value, while being long is a view its value will rise. "It's across-the-board buying of the dollar," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist, at Scotia Capital in Toronto.
"What is interesting about it is that when dollar longs were at these levels, it was mainly euro-centric. Now it's more broad-based and consistent with the risk aversion we saw during the period. Yen short positions increased as well to 66,084 contracts, including those on sterling, and Swiss franc, while net longs on the Australian and Canadian dollar were reduced. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.
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