Speculators’ net long bets on U.S. dollar trimmed -CFTC, Reuters

Speculators net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell for a third straight 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 was $12.91 billion for the week ended April 19. Last week, speculators net long position stood at $13.22 billion.

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

So far this year, the dollar index, a measure of the greenbacks value against six major currencies, has gained 5.7%, after a 6.3% rise in 2021.

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

The months-long rally has left some investors wondering if the U.S. currency may be close to hitting a near-term peak.

On Friday, the dollar rose to a more than two-year high, continuing to draw support from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell‘s comments on Thursday that seemed to back a half a percentage point tightening at next month’s policy meeting, as well as his remarks on a likely consecutive rate hikes this year.

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

$10.394 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 12,723 9,925

Short 119,910 121,752

Net -107,187 -111,827

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

$-4.22 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 221,003 221,645

Short 189,702 182,585

Net 31,301 39,060

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

$4.785 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 36,811 35,514

Short 95,725 88,568

Net -58,914 -53,054

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

$1.504 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 2,900 1,642

Short 14,350 15,584

Net -11,450 -13,942

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

$-1.682 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 44,063 37,724

Short 22,837 25,566

Net 21,226 12,158

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

$2.125 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 39,201 39,770

Short 68,038 68,485

Net -28,837 -28,715

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

$-0.541 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 73,710 81,582

Short 52,046 66,622

Net 21,664 14,960

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

$-0.025 billion

19 Apr 2022 Prior week

week

Long 19,081 16,295

Short 18,716 16,584

Net 365 -289

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Leslie Adler and Diane Craft)