Currency speculators in International Monetary Market futures increased their long euro positions for the period ending July 3, according to data released on Friday.
Net long euro positions rose further to 68,545 contracts, up from last week's 64,670 contracts, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed. Being "long" a currency is effectively a bet it will strengthen, while being "short" is a bet it will weaken.
David Powell, currency strategist at IDEAglobal in New York, said he expects euro long positions to increase further next week in the wake of hawkish comments on Thursday by European Central bank President Jean-Claude Trichet. Friday's CFTC data did not include Thursday's ECB comments. Trichet's remarks suggested there would more interest rate increases in the euro zone due to rising inflationary pressures.
Speculative trading accounts in IMM futures also switched to a net short dollar position against six major currencies to around 25,100 contracts, from a net long of about 11,900 the previous week, according to estimates from IDEAglobal. These six major currencies are the euro, yen, sterling, Swiss franc, and the Canadian and Australian dollars.