Speculators' latest net long US dollar positioning rose for a second straight week, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $9.58 billion in the week ended Jan. 28, compared with $7.76 billion the previous week.
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 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 of $4.282 billion, up from $2.42 billion a week earlier.
The dollar benefited last week as a safe haven as worries about the recent outbreak of a coronavirus that originated in China. For the month of January, the dollar index rose 1%, the largest monthly gain since July last year.
The death toll rose to 213 on Friday, all in China. The number of confirmed cases in China has risen beyond 9,800, Beijing's envoy to the United Nations in Vienna said, while some 131 cases have been reported in 23 other countries and regions.
"FX markets have arguably been more robust to the pricing of the virus," according to a research note from payments company Monex Europe.
"The impact from the event is undoubtedly linked to the impact it will have on China's Q1 GDP data and its resulting impact on the global economy, while certain currencies feel the pinch from commodity markets too," it added.
In other currencies, net short euro positioning increased to -58,862 contracts, the largest net short since late December.
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