Speculators pare back net long U.S. dollar bets in latest week -CFTC, Reuters data

Speculators net long positioning on the U.S. dollar fell in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the net long dollar position slid to $14.13 billion for the week ended April 5, from $16.11 billion the previous week. U.S. dollar net long positioning declined for the first time in five weeks.

The U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, as well as Canadian and Australian dollars.

So far this year, the dollar index, a measure of the greenbacks value against six major currencies, has gained 4.4%, after a 6.3% gain in 2021.

The greenback has benefited all year from safe-haven flows during the war in Ukraine, as well as expectations of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening to control the surge in inflation.

U.S. rate futures have priced in an 85% chance of a 50 basis point hike at the May meeting, with roughly 220 basis points of cumulative hikes for 2022.

In cryptocurrencies, speculators reduced net short positioning on bitcoin to 244 contracts in the week ending April 5, compared with net shorts of 271 the week, CFTC data showed.

Bitcoin has stabilized above $40,000 after an up and down last couple of months, with the Ukraine war and soaring inflation as backdrop. The worlds largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization has behaved more like a risk asset.

So far this year, bitcoin has fallen more than 7% versus the dollar. It was last down 1.5% at $42,822.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)

$10.501 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 14,583 15,274

Short 118,412 117,405

Net -103,829 -102,131

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

$-3.73 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 210,914 200,043

Short 183,544 178,669

Net 27,370 21,374

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

$3.411 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 35,873 30,624

Short 77,631 70,694

Net -41,758 -40,070

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

$1.666 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 1,860 3,292

Short 14,253 14,871

Net -12,393 -11,579

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

$-0.555 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 37,325 32,429

Short 30,402 33,964

Net 6,923 -1,535

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

$2.843 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 34,871 33,960

Short 72,384 83,566

Net -37,513 -49,606

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

$-0.023 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 78,728 75,081

Short 77,818 83,328

Net 910 -8,247

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)

$0.109 billion

05 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 15,428 15,504

Short 16,997 16,371

Net -1,569 -867

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by David Gregorio)