Speculators' net long bets on the US dollar shrank in the latest week, to be slightly down from a 22-month high hit in the prior period, according to calculations by Reuters and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $27.64 billion in the week ended October 16, down from $27.79 billion in the previous week. Speculators have been net long the dollar for 18 consecutive weeks. US dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Long bets on the dollar fell for the first time since early September as risk sentiment improved in the first half of the week after upbeat Wall Street earnings turned global sentiment away from safe-haven assets. The CFTC data measures positioning from Tuesday to Tuesday, so the rise of the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, in the second half of the week will register in next Friday's data.
At the start of the week, US exchanges opened higher, led by technology stocks, as earnings from blue-chip companies helped ease jitters over the impact of an ongoing US-China trade war and other global issues on corporate profits.
The improved risk appetite was also evident in speculative positions in the safe-haven Swiss franc. Net short positions in the franc increased for the first time since August to minus 16,524 from minus 12,803 the week prior.
Net short positions in the euro were the largest since March 2017 at minus 29,344 versus minus 16,142 the week prior. The euro was on the back foot early this week after the Italian cabinet on Monday signed off on an expansionary 2019 budget to set up a showdown with authorities in Brussels over compliance with EU rules.
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