Speculators bolstered their net long US dollar position in the latest week, pushing it to the highest since December 2015, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net long dollar position was $33.60 billion in the week ended April 9, compared with $32.30 billion the previous week. US net long dollars rose for a second straight session.
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. In a broader 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 of $28.899 billion in the week of April 9, compared with $27.68 billion the previous week.
The dollar has held up pretty well even after the Federal Reserve turned dovish in March. Analysts said US economic data have been solid and the United States has outperformed other major economies such as the euro zone. "There's been a lot of talk about recessions, trade tensions between the EU and US are escalating and there's still no final resolution to US-China trade talks or Brexit," said Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy, at BK Asset Management in New York.
"And yet investors are optimistic because bank earnings are strong and they believe that policy accommodation abroad will help to mitigate a deep slowdown in global growth." So far this year, the dollar index has risen 0.8 percent. In the cryptocurrency market, speculators' net short position on bitcoin Cboe futures slipped to -1,258 in the week ended April 9, from 1,343 contracts the previous week.