Dollar net short bets declined as jobless applications declined

By IFCMarkets.com

US dollar bearish bets increase reversed with total net shorts declining to $31.57 billion from $32.13 against the major currencies during the one week period, according to the report of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) covering data up to August 18 and released on Friday August 21. The decline in net short dollar bets came about mainly from increase in bearish bets on Canadian Dollar and significant decrease in bullish bets on Swiss franc and Japanese yen as Japan reported the world’s third-largest economy shrank 27.8% from a year earlier in the three months ending in June. At the same time Pound bets turned bullish despite UK officially entering recession as it suffered bigger GDP slump than Germany, France and Japan – 20.4% over quarter in Q2 following 2.2% decline in Q1positive. And in US the Labor Department reported 963 thousand Americans filed for first-time benefits, a consecutive weekly decline of 223,000. The bearish dollar bets declined despite a Census Bureau report US retail sales rose below-expected 1.2% over month in July instead of a forecast of a 2% increase.