U.S. dollar longs slide to two-month low - CFTC, Reuters

(Adds table, details)

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Speculators further trimmed bets favoring

the U.S. dollar, pushing net longs to their lowest in more than

two months, according to data from the Commodity Futures

Trading Commission released on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position fell to $40.81

billion in the week ended Feb. 24, from $42.04 billion the

previous week. Net dollar longs declined for a third straight

week.

That said, this was still the ninth straight week that

dollar longs have hit at least $40 billion.

A round of mixed U.S. economic data has somewhat dimmed

optimism on the U.S. dollar, with market participants further

pushing out expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate

hike to later this year instead of mid-year.

Net euro short contracts, meanwhile, continued to fall,

notching 177,736 contracts in the latest week, from 185,582

previously.

The Swiss franc net short position also contracted to 5,085

contracts, the smallest net short since mid-December.

To be long a currency is to take a view it will rise, while

being short is a bet its value will decline.

The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar

position is derived from net positions of International Monetary

Market speculators in the yen, euro, sterling, Swiss franc,

Canadian and Australian dollars.

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

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 31,611 31,269

Short 79,123 80,360

Net -47,512 -49,091

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 45,511 47,175

Short 223,247 232,757

Net -177,736 -185,582

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 46,741 42,999

Short 68,611 71,797

Net -21,870 -28,798

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 5,228 4,740

Short 10,313 10,784

Net -5,085 -6,044

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 22,423 19,998

Short 58,668 52,840

Net -36,245 -32,842

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 15,597 17,230

Short 78,751 71,061

Net -63,154 -53,831

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 34,105 28,873

Short 82,449 74,318

Net -48,344 -45,445

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

24Feb2015 week Prior week

Long 11,107 10,021

Short 15,437 15,774

Net -4,330 -5,753

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by James

Dalgleish)