Speculators added to their net long bets on the US dollar slightly in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net long dollar position was $26.74 billion in the week ended October 30, up from $26.16 billion the previous week. Speculators were net long dollars for the 20th straight week, after being short for 48 consecutive weeks.
To be long a currency means traders believe it will rise in value, while being short points to a bearish bias. 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.
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 valued at $28.25 billion, compared with a net long position valued at $27.14 billion a week earlier.
On Friday, the dollar rose against the yen and the euro in a choppy session, as worries that a trade deal between the United States and China may not be imminent curtailed risk appetite and boosted safe-haven demand for the greenback.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC that President Donald Trump has not asked US officials to draw up a proposed trade plan for China, shooting down an earlier report from Bloomberg that Trump had asked officials to draft a possible deal. The dollar was also supported by strong US jobs data. In a week marked by volatility, the dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's value versus six major peers, hit a 16-month high on Wednesday.
"Stability long-term is what speculators are desperate to find after so many swings and it seems like the buck is the better bet," said Juan Perez, senior currency trader with Tempus, Inc in Washington.
Meanwhile, speculators boosted their net short position on bitcoin Cboe future contracts to 1,077 contracts, up from a record low net short position of 1,058 contracts, the data showed. Bitcoin was up 0.15 percent at $6,350.38 on the Bitstamp platform on Friday.
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