By Dion Rabouin
(Reuters) - Speculators raised net long bets on the U.S. dollar to $24.17 billion this week, increasing their positions from $22.45 billion last week, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and calculations by Reuters.
Net long bets on the dollar fell last week for the first time since October, but rebounded as currency speculators again took bullish positions on the future of the greenback in the last trading week of the year.
Analysts told Reuters they expect the dollar's strength to continue in 2017 with the greenback set to end this year up more than 3.5 percent against a basket of major currencies.
However, a good deal of uncertainty remained about what the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will bring and how much dollar appreciation it will tolerate.
"Much depends on how the Trump presidency and the Chinese economy work out," said Marshall Gittler, chief market analyst for retail broker FX Primus. "In general, I expect the dollar to continue to gain."
Speculators also raised net short contracts on the Japanese yen <JPY=> for the ninth straight week to 87,009 contracts, the most since August 2015.
Net short contracts on the euro <EUR=> were reduced substantially, with speculators holding the lowest number of net shorts on the continental currency since July.
The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
$9.265 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 40,565 64,200
Short 127,574 139,649
Net -87,009 -75,449
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
$9.071 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 123,281 117,460
Short 192,689 195,505
Net -69,408 -78,045
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
$4.379 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 50,062 44,152
Short 107,161 103,502
Net -57,099 -59,350
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
$1.228 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 14,303 33,476
Short 24,394 26,366
Net -10,091 7,110
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
$0.118 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 36,597 22,246
Short 38,195 34,000
Net -1,598 -11,754
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
$0.108 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 44,076 38,321
Short 45,586 34,380
Net -1,510 3,941
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
$1.486 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 21,411 20,806
Short 83,068 87,487
Net -61,657 -66,681
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
$0.758 billion
27 Dec 2016 Prior week
week
Long 25,448 28,313
Short 36,449 35,266
Net -11,001 -6,953