Forex - Dollar falls even as traders bet on more upside

Investing.com - The U.S. dollar traded broadly lower against its major rivals during Monday’s Asian session despite reports that traders had increased their bullish bets on the greenback.

In Asian trading Monday, EUR/USD rose 0.18% to 1.3163. Later Monday, the U.S. is to publish private sector data on existing home sales, an important economic indicator, but the dollar has recently been bolstered by the Federal Reserve.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the pace of the central bank’s bond purchases are not a “preset course”.

In the first day of his semi-annual testimony to Congress, Bernanke reiterated that the Fed will continue to maintain its accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future. He added that the central bank may taper its USD85-billion-a-month asset-purchase program later this year and halt it around mid-2014.

USD/JPY slid 0.46% to 100.16 even after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party scored, as expected an easy victory in the weekend’s elections that decided control of Japan’s upper house of parliament.

GBP/USD rose 0.12% to 1.5288. Last week, the minutes of the Bank of England’s July meeting showed that policymakers voted unanimously to keep the bank’s quantitative easing program unchanged, ahead of a decision next month on whether to provide forward guidance on future interest rates.

USD/CHF fell 0.20% to 0.9397 while USD/CAD inched down 0.06% to 1.0362 as oil prices traded higher.

Data from the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission indicate traders moved the value of their combined net long positions in the U.S. dollar to USD29.61 billion in the week ended July 16, from USD27.94 billion the previous week.

AUD/USD jumped 0.36% to 0.9214 while NZD/USD rose 0.11% to 0.7941. The U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.16% to 82.61.