LONDON, July 18 Reuters The euro firmed to a oneweek high on Monday, benefiting from the dollar39;s retreat after several Federal Reserve officials signaled they did not favour stepping up the rate hiking pace.

The comments made late last week knocked the dollar off twodecade highs and encouraged traders to add to risk, boosting global stocks and nondollar currencies, especially the euro.

The greenback39;s index, measuring its rate against six global currencies, is now 1.8 off last week39;s 20year peaks and by 0800 GMT, stood 0.35 lower at 107.48 . The euro, the main component in that index, firmed 0.5 at 1.0149, having plunged below parity last week for the first time since 2002 .

With equity markets still in positive territory, risk appetite is back so the comments from Fed governor Christopher Waller, ramming back on the 100 bps rise, have had the desired impact, said Derek Halpenny, head of research at MUFG.

Waller and St Louis Fed governor James Bullard said they favoured a 75basispoint interest rate increase at their July 2627 meeting, rather than the 100 bps move some had pencilled in following an aboveforecast inflation reading.

After the comments, futures tied to the shortterm federal funds policy rate firmly favour a 75 bps hike.

Speculators remain bearish on most nondollar currencies, however, with weekly U.S. CFTC data showing aggregate dollar long positions at a sevenweek highs. They added to euro and yen short positions by 1 billion and 470 million…