Dollar bearish bets declined on consumer sentiment improvement

US dollar net short bets decreased to $26.55 billion from $29.03 billion against the major currencies during the one-week period, according to the report of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) covering data up to December 15 and released on Friday December 18. The improvement in dollar sentiment was reflected in decrease in bullish bets on euro, yen, Swiss franc and Pound as German trade surplus rose to below expected 18.2 billion euro in October after 17.6 billion in prior month, while the Tankan Large Manufacturers Index showed the sentiment among Japanese businesses still remained downcast in December. The decrease in dollar bearish bests followed the University of Michigan report the consumer sentiment index rose to above expected 81.4 for December from 76.9 in November. And the Federal Reserve reported US Industrial Production growth slowing to 0.4% over month in November after 0.9% increase in October was less than the 0.3% forecast.