Speculators lift long dollar bets

Speculators raised their bullish bets on the US dollar for the third straight week, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars, was $12.69 billion, in the week to Feb. 4.

That compares with a net long position of $9.58 billion the previous week. 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 short position valued at $8.07 billion, down from $4.28 billion, a week earlier.