Speculators' bearish bets on U.S. dollar shrink: CFTC, Reuters data

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators' net bearish bets on the U.S. dollar shrank in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The net short dollar position was $7.66 billion for the week ended May 19, compared with a net short position of $9.08 billion for the week before that.

The net short was the smallest since speculators turned bearish on the greenback in early March.

U.S. 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.

Traders who are long on a currency believe it will rise in value, while being short points to a bearish bias.

In a wider measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the U.S. dollar posted a net short of $6.58 billion, down from $8.06 billion a week earlier.

The U.S. dollar came under pressure this week as the euro enjoyed a boost from France and Germany's recent proposal for a 500-billion-euro ($543 billion) recovery fund to offer grants to regions and sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. Dollar Currency Index <=USD>, which measures the greenback's strength against six other major currencies, was on pace to finish the week down 0.6%.

Strong safe-haven demand limited greenback losses as Beijing imposed a new security law on Hong Kong which further strained fast-deteriorating U.S.-China ties.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; editing by Diane Craft and Richard Chang)

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