By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
(Reuters) - Speculators pared back bullish U.S. dollar bets this week, as investors were dismayed by poor U.S. economic growth data for the second quarter that dampened expectations for an interest rate hike this year.
The value of the dollar's net long position fell to $12.81 billion in the week ended Aug. 2, from $13.66 billion the previous week, according to Reuters calculations and data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
Dollar net longs fell after increasing four straight weeks. The greenback had been on its best run of weekly gains in 1-1/2 years until last week when the weak GDP data was released.
Since that GDP report, the dollar had weakened 1.4 percent, before recovering on Friday after a much stronger-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payrolls number.
Analysts say it would be hard for the Federal Reserve to ignore two straight month of strong jobs numbers. That view should drive further gains in the dollar.
"It has now become rather clear that employment remains a very substantial bright spot in the U.S. economy and a strong support factor for a potential rate hike this year," said James Chen, currency strategist at Forex.com in New Jersey.
Sterling net short contracts, meanwhile, surged to 82,515, a record high, data showed.
Net short contracts on the British pound grew at a rapid pace after Britain voted on June 23 to leave the European Union. Speculators have been short sterling since November last year.
Since Britain's vote, the pound has fallen 13.31 percent.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
$-5.167 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 76,575 74,074
Short 34,875 39,116
Net 41,700 34,958
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
$14.607 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 104,516 109,193
Short 208,619 221,793
Net -104,103 -112,600
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
$6.887 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 33,375 29,819
Short 115,890 110,391
Net -82,515 -80,572
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
$0.222 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 21,216 26,807
Short 22,931 25,861
Net -1,715 946
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
$-1.355 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 41,711 44,023
Short 23,953 20,843
Net 17,758 23,180
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
$-2.386 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 58,269 57,083
Short 26,906 25,573
Net 31,363 31,510
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
$1.377 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 23,915 24,114
Short 76,038 70,676
Net -52,123 -46,562
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
$-0.016 billion
02 Aug 2016 Prior week
week
Long 27,049 26,598
Short 26,832 26,383
Net 217 215
