U.S. dollar longs hit lowest in more than a year -CFTC, Reuters
(Adds table, details on dollar index, and British pound)
Sept 25 (Reuters) - Speculators further reduced bullish bets
on the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . dollar this week to their lowest since late July
last year, according to Reuters calculations and data from the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
The value of the dollar's net long position fell to $20.48
billion in the week ended Sept. 22, from $20.97 billion the
previous week. This was the second straight week short-term
investors reduced U.S. dollar exposure and the fifth consecutive
week dollar longs came in under $30 billion.
To be long a currency is to make a bet it will rise, while
being short is a bet its value will decline.
The period covers the Federal Reserve's decision to hold
U.S. interest rates unchanged last week, disappointing investors
eager to get the tightening policy going. The dollar was hurt by
the Fed's decision last week and the currency's near-term
outlook has dimmed a little bit given the uncertainty about the
timing of the Fed's first rate increase in nearly a decade.
This month so far the dollar index is up 0.3 percent.
In other currencies, sterling futures showed the most
notable change, turning net long to 1,267 contracts, from net
short contracts of 3,619 the previous week.
Ian McCafferty, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary
Policy Committee, pushed for a hike in British interest rates to
prevent inflation from overshooting in two to three years. He
was the only MPC (KOSDAQ: 050540.KQ - news) member though voting for a rate increase.
The pound in September was down nearly 1 percent and for the
year so far was 2.4 percent lower.
The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar
position is derived from net positions of International Monetary
Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc
and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 48,282 36,449
Short 71,960 63,263
Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) -23,678 -26,814
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 63,526 63,416
Short 144,559 147,618
Net -81,033 -84,202
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 45,001 43,206
Short 43,734 46,825
Net 1,267 -3,619
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 13,722 19,039
Short 15,598 15,257
Net -1,876 3,782
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 40,901 28,509
Short 79,295 75,592
Net -38,394 -47,083
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 42,666 59,117
Short 95,498 99,846
Net -52,832 -40,729
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 47,626 21,749
Short 59,982 77,034
Net -12,356 -55,285
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
22 Sep 2015 Prior week
week
Long 22,990 22,462
Short 26,519 24,556
Net -3,529 -2,094
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Meredith
Mazzilli and James Dalgleish)