UPDATE 1-Speculators pare net long US dollar bets to lowest since mid-July -CFTC, Reuters

world news, trump, u.s., business news, stock market, entertainment news, business news, company news, market, commodities, commodity, Africa news

-CFTC, Reuters@ (Adds details on dollar positioning, analyst comment, table, graphic, byline) NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Speculators’ net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell to the lowest since mid-July, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net long dollar position was $19.16 billion in the week ended Sept. 11, down from $20.60 billion the previous week. Speculators have been net long dollars for 13 straight weeks, after being net short for 48 consecutive weeks. Net long U.S. dollar positioning has also declined for three straight weeks. U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars. In a wider measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the U.S. dollar posted a net long position of $20.796 billion in the week ended Sept. 11, from $22.14 billion a week earlier. Investors continued to pare back extreme long dollar positioning that in recent weeks had hit the highest since January 2017. The dollar had benefited from expectations of higher interest rates as well as the escalation of global trade tensions involving the United States, China, Canada and the European Union. But easing trade tensions between China and the United States as well as encouraging developments between Britain and the European Union on the terms for Britain’s exit from the economic bloc has reduced safe-haven demand for the dollar. Since mid-August, the dollar index has declined 2.7 percent. Bloomberg reported on Friday though that U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed aides to proceed with tariffs on about $200 billion more in Chinese products, despite Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s attempts to restart talks with China about resolving the trade war. That has boosted the dollar index on Friday, trading up 0.5 percent on the day at 94.954 The CFTC report also showed that the major positioning changes were in the euro, with net longs increasing; sterling, whose net shorts fell; and the Swiss franc, with its net short also declining. In the cryptocurrency market, speculators’ net short position on bitcoin Cboe futures dropped to a record low of -1,239 contracts from net shorts of -1,368 contracts the previous week, data showed. Bitcoin on Friday rose 0.7 percent to $6,528.71 on the Bitstamp platform. It cleared the $7,000 hurdle in late August, but has since declined from that level. So far this year bitcoin has plunged 53 percent, after soaring more than 1,300 percent in 2017. Nigel Green, founder and chief executive officer of deVere Group, which launched a cryptocurrency exchange, said the broader crypto market remains in bear territory. He added that investors should look at the bigger picture and see potential buying opportunities in other digital currencies. “There’s no doubt in my mind that in today’s digitalized, globalized world, the demand for digital, global currencies in some form whether it be the biggest ones of today or not is only set to grow,” Green said.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) $6.035 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 48,057 47,572 Short 101,943 99,504 Net -53,886 -51,932

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) $-1.62 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 164,639 173,335 Short 153,469 165,372 Net 11,170 7,963

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) $4.983 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 65,982 64,040 Short 127,161 133,653 Net -61,179 -69,613

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) $4.546 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 7,676 7,973 Short 43,026 48,367 Net -35,350 -40,394

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) $2.062 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 30,506 34,748 Short 57,448 61,055 Net -26,942 -26,307

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) $3.156 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 48,230 31,772 Short 92,542 75,803 Net -44,312 -44,031

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) $-0.379 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 101,282 103,856 Short 86,746 91,337 Net 14,536 12,519

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars) $1.477 billion

11 Sep 2018 Prior week

week

Long 19,408 16,291 Short 42,055 41,185 Net -22,647 -24,894

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Susan Thomas and Meredith Mazzilli)

Advertisements