Speculators up long bets on dollar to five-month high

Speculators raised their net long bets on the US dollar in the latest week to a five-month high, according to calculations by Reuters and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the net long dollar position was $21.21 billion in the week ended Dec. 3, up from $20.11 billion last week. This week's long US dollar position is the largest since late June.

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 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 valued at $19.77 billion, up from $18.93 billion a week earlier.

The dollar, which has been largely range-bound against major currencies in recent months, came under pressure this week after a slew of weaker-than-expected US data in manufacturing and services left investors worried about a slowdown in the US economy.

On Friday, the dollar rose after five straight days of losses, bolstered by data showing the US economy created way more jobs than expected in November, backing the Federal Reserve's stance of keeping interest rates on hold after cutting them three times this year.

"The killer jobs number was the exclamation point for the Fed's call to keep rates on hold," Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, said in a note.

"With a strong US consumer still in place despite the ongoing trade war, US stocks, Treasury yields and the dollar have all turned very bullish again," he said. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other major currencies, was up 0.3% to 97.68. For the week, the index was down 0.6%.