Speculators raised their short bets against the US dollar for the fourth consecutive week, with the value of contracts against the greenback increasing to $11.57 billion in latest week, the largest since January 2013, according to data from the Commodity futures Trading Commission calculated by Reuters.
The value of the dollar's net short position, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars for the week ending September 12. Net long contracts on the Mexican peso rose to the highest level since May 2013.
The dollar appreciated early in the week, bouncing back from last week's trading that pushed the euro to its highest level against the greenback in 2-1/2 years and sterling at its highest versus the dollar in more than a year.
Market participants are expecting the European Central Bank to announce an unwinding to its massive quantitative easing program in the near future. Policymakers at the Bank of England this week also suggested they may raise the country's overnight interest rates from current historically low levels. Investors will next look to Wednesday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, in which the Fed is expected to start reducing its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. There is, however, zero expectation for an interest rate hike.