Speculators trimmed bets favouring the US dollar in the latest week, while investors reduced net shorts on the euro, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position slipped to $44.51 billion in the week ended February 10, from $45.82 billion the previous week. Still, this was the seventh straight week dollar net longs have hit at least $40 billion.
Net euro short contracts fell to 194,641, equivalent to about $27.5 billion, from 196,309 contracts the previous week. Last week's short euro bet was the largest in about 2-1/2 years. To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while being short is a bet its value will decline. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.