Speculators pared back positive bets on the US dollar, pushing the currency's net long position to their lowest in 4-1/2 months, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Thomson Reuters released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position fell to $34.75 billion in the week ended April 28 from $37.87 billion the previous week. Net longs on the dollar declined for a fifth straight week.
It was also the third straight week that longs on the dollar came in below $40 billion. The dollar has been hurt by a spate of weaker-than-expected US economic data such as the softer-than-forecast first-quarter US growth figures released early this week.
The weak figures reinforced expectations that the pace of US interest rate increases by the Federal Reserve will be slower than initially thought, which is negative for the dollar. The dollar posted the worst monthly performance in four years in April, losing nearly 4 percent. To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while being short is a bet that its value will decline.
Net short positions on the euro, meanwhile, fell for a fourth consecutive week, totaling 197,766 contracts, from 214,645 previously. The rise in German Bund yields on receding deflationary fears in the euro zone has helped the euro, as did expectations for a positive resolution of Greece's debt problems. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of international monetary speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
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