Currency speculators in the week to Tuesday increased their bets on the dollar strengthening on a broad basis against six major currencies, data showed on Friday.
Speculative trading accounts in International Monetary Market futures extended their net long US dollar positions to 62,383 contracts in the week ending March 28 from 55,073 contracts the previous week.
More specifically, they extended their net short Australian dollar positions to fresh record levels and established their biggest short Canadian dollar position since early December.
These IMM accounts maintained their bets on further euro strength, holding onto a net long position in excess of 40,000 contracts. Being "long" a currency is effectively a bet that it will strengthen, while being "short" is a bet that it will weaken.
As with the previous week's figures, Friday's data showed that of the six major counterparts to the US dollar - the euro, yen, sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars - IMM traders held a net long position in only one of them: the euro.
Since Tuesday, however, the US dollar has slipped back against major currencies, suggesting these positions might have been scaled back too.
The data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of Traders report on speculative positioning are used by analysts as an indicator of future market direction.
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