FX Speculators Raised US Dollar Bullish Bets For 1st Time In 3 Weeks
Zachary Storella | Jun 11, 2017 05:23AM ET
The latest data for the weekly Commitment of Traders (COT) report, released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, showed that large traders and currency speculators increased their bullish bets in favor of the US dollar for the first time in three weeks last week.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, had an overall US dollar long position totaling $8.0 billion as of Tuesday June 6th according to the latest data from the CFTC and dollar amount calculations by Reuters. This was a weekly gain of $0.47 billion from the $7.53 billion total long position that was registered the previous week, according to the Reuters calculation (totals of the US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc).
The aggregate US dollar positions, despite the weekly gain, remain below the $+10 billion level for a third consecutive week after staying above that level from September 27th 2016 to May 23rd.
Weekly Speculator Contract Changes:
The individual major currency contracts movements this week were highlighted by continuing positive sentiment for the euro and the Mexican peso.
The euro speculator bids continued to gain for a seventh straight week and sent euro positions to the highest net bullish position since May 3rd 2011 when net positions totaled +99,516 contracts.
The Mexican peso positions rose for a second straight week and fourth out of the last fifth to the highest level since June 10th 2014 when net positions equaled +90,203 contracts.
Overall, the major currencies that improved against the US dollar last week were the euro (1,140 weekly change in contracts), Swiss franc (1,957 contracts), Canadian dollar (3,686 contracts), New Zealand dollar (1,184 contracts) and the Mexican peso (9,819 contracts).
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Meanwhile, the currencies whose speculative bets declined last week versus the dollar were the British pound sterling (-7,065 weekly change in contracts), Japanese yen (-2,752 contracts) and the Australian dollar (-3,181 contracts).
EuroFX:
British Pound Sterling:
Japanese Yen:
Swiss Franc:
Canadian Dollar:
Australian Dollar:
New Zealand Dollar:
Mexican Peso:
*COT Report: The weekly commitment of traders report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).
The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).
Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.
(The charts overlay the forex closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.) See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.
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