Speculators increase long bets on U.S. dollar: CFTC, Reuters

By Kate Duguid

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators raised their bullish bets on the U.S. dollar in the latest week to the largest position in four weeks, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars, was $15.70 billion in the week to Nov. 12.

That compares with a net long position of $13.32 billion the previous week.

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 position valued at $14.323 billion, up from $12.219 billion a week earlier.

The dollar was buoyed early this week by hopes that a "phase one" U.S.-China trade deal was close to being finalized. Hopes for an imminent a deal to wind back tit-for-tat tariffs the world's two largest economies have imposed on each other lifted the dollar on Wednesday to a one-month high of 98.447 against a basket of currencies. <.DXY>

The dollar has also been supported by expectations the Federal Reserve will pause its monetary easing cycle this year after it cut interest rates in October for the third time in 2019.

(Reporting by Kate Duguid; Editing by Sandra Maler and Tom Brown)

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