No surprise to readers here.

Dollar Optimists Return as Slowdown Spreads to Europe, Japan

By Lester Pimentel

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar will appreciate against the euro, yen, pound and Swiss franc in the next six months as economies in Europe and Asia falter, a survey of Bloomberg users showed.

U.S. investors turned bullish on the greenback after incorrectly forecasting a decline last month, according to respondents in the monthly Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence Index, which questioned 2,969 users from Los Angeles to Paris to Tokyo. Participants became bearish on the franc and yen while growing more pessimistic about the British pound.

``It's not that people are more optimistic about the U.S. economy,'' said Richard Franulovich, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. in New York and a survey participant. ``The rest of the world is catching up with the U.S.''