Asset Managers Boost Euro Bets as Hedge Funds Cut Shorts

Europe’s historic pivot toward bigger fiscal spending has spurred asset managers to pump up bullish euro positions to a five-month high, while hedge funds have pared bets on the currency’s weakness.

Fund managers boosted positions that benefit from a stronger euro to 262,759 contracts for the week to March 11, a few days after Germany said it would loosen fiscal chains and spend hundreds of billions of euros to transform European defense. Hedge funds simultaneously cut their short euro positions to the least since October, Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed.