© Reuters. U.S. greenback banknotes are displayed on this illustration taken, February 14, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Speculators’ web lengthy positioning within the U.S. greenback dropped within the newest week to the bottom degree since mid-August 2021, in line with calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee knowledge launched on Friday.
The worth of the online lengthy greenback place fell to $5.12 billion for the week ended March 1, from $5.80 billion the earlier week. U.S. greenback web lengthy positioning fell for a seventh consecutive week.
The U.S. greenback positioning was derived from web contracts of Worldwide Financial Market speculators within the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, in addition to Canadian and Australian {dollars}.
In a wider measure of greenback positioning, which incorporates web contracts on the New Zealand greenback, Mexican peso, Brazilian actual and Russian rouble, the dollar posted a web lengthy place of $3.84 billion this week, from $5.05 billion within the prior week.
“Knowledge launched in the present day confirmed a decline in U.S. greenback bullish sentiment regardless of elevated market anxiousness owing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” wrote Scotiabank in a analysis be aware after the discharge of the CFTC knowledge.
Speculators additionally elevated web lengthy positioning on the euro to 64,939 contracts, the most important since July 2021.
Scotia, nonetheless, stated optimistic drivers are restricted for the euro. That ought to see buyers trim web bullish positions on subsequent week’s knowledge “notably forward of a dovish ECB (European Central Financial institution) choice on Thursday given the dangers posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Within the wake of Russia’s assault and the resultant monetary sanctions on the nation, web longs on the Russian rouble have been slashed to 9,674 contracts, the bottom since late January.
In cyptocurrencies, speculators turned web lengthy on bitcoin futures, with 80 contracts, for the primary time because the week of Feb. 1, CFTC knowledge confirmed.
It has been a roller-coaster trip for bitcoin over the past couple of months. Like most danger belongings, bitcoin has struggled amid rising expectations that the Federal Reserve will tighten financial coverage at its assembly later this month.
To date this yr, bitcoin has fallen 14% versus the greenback. It was final down 7.2% at $39,411.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
$7.478 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 14,665 10,976
Brief 83,397 74,163
Web -68,732 -63,187
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
$-9.031 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 228,385 214,195
Brief 163,446 154,889
Web 64,939 59,306
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 kilos sterling)
$0.028 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 47,679 42,249
Brief 48,016 48,058
Web -337 -5,809
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
$2.075 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 1,651 3,785
Brief 16,899 14,772
Web -15,248 -10,987
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian {dollars})
$-1.11 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 50,881 47,661
Brief 36,741 38,408
Web 14,140 9,253
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 {dollars})
$5.678 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 12,720 11,553
Brief 91,056 95,633
Web -78,336 -84,080
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
$-1.027 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 74,971 72,846
Brief 32,593 56,021
Web 42,378 16,825
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand {dollars})
$0.957 billion
01 Mar 2022 Prior week
week
Lengthy 10,485 17,343
Brief 24,657 28,894
Web -14,172 -11,551
