Dollar bearish bets decline continued despite lackluster January jobs report

US dollar short bets inched down to $29.54 billion from $29.95 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 February 9 and released on February 12. The dollar sentiment improvement continued despite Bureau of Labor Statistics report US economy added only 49,000 jobs in January after losing 227 thousand in December, while the unemployment rate declined to 6.3% from 6.7% the previous month.. The drop in dollar bearish bets was recorded despite Fed chair Powell’s highlighting of headwinds to the economic recovery - saying ‘we have not won this yet’, signaling that monetary policy will remain ultra-easy as Fed kept interest rates and bond purchases unchanged. However, US Labor Department reported 847 thousand Americans sought unemployment benefits over the last week, down from 914 thousand the previous week.