Bullish US dollar bets inch up in latest week

NEW YORK: Speculators modestly increased their net long US dollar bets in the week ending July 23 to $15.32 billion from $15.20 billion in the prior period, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.

It has fallen from $38.88 billion in April.

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 long position valued at $11.50 billion, the lowest since June 2018 and down from $11.66 billion a week earlier.

The dollar index has fallen from a two-year high on May 23 on growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates when it next meets on July 30-31. However, the index this week has been bolstered, recovering some prior losses by strong economic data including Friday morning's gross domestic product report and the news that President Donald Trump and US lawmakers reached a two-year deal that raises the limits on government borrowing to cover spending.