US dollar net shorts soar to highest in nine years

Speculators boosted their net short positioning to the highest level since August 2011 in the week ended July 28, according to data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. 

Bearish bets on the greenback rose for the fourth straight week to reach a tally of $24.27 billion – the highest since April 2018 – from previous week’s $18.81 billion, as per Reuters calculation. 

Markets have been bearish on the greenback since March. Having topped out 102.99 in Mach, the dollar index, which tracks the value of the greenback against major currencies, fell to a 26-month low of 92.55 last week. 

The greenback has taken a beating with the Fed pumping unprecedented amounts of liquidity into the system to normalize stress in the dollar funding markets.