5 May 2014
Specs keep bets against USD biggest since early 2013 - TDS
FXStreet (Bali) - The FX Team at TDS summarized the latest change in the CFTC Commitments of Traders Report - Week Ending Tuesday, April 29th -, noting that positioning adjustments were kept to a minimum.
Key Quotes
"CTAs kept positioning adjustments to a minimum in the week through April 29th, according to the latest snapshot of futures market activity from the CTFC. There was reduction in the aggregate short position that the market has accumulated recently (USD4.2bn overall, down from USD5.4bn earlier in the month). But this is still effectively the biggest net bet against the USD that speculators have held since early 2013."
§ There was, in fact, no net change in EUR positioning, with the net long equivalent of 25.7k contracts in the latest week’s data matching the position from the April 22nd week exactly. Investors are perhaps almost as confused about the EUR outlook as we are.
"Investors lightened net long exposure to the GBP to a still hefty 44.2k contracts, down from the recent peak of 50.5k. Net CHF longs were cut to 13.7k contracts, from 14.0k contracts in the previous week."
"Short JPY remains the biggest speculative punt out there at the moment, according to the CFTC data and investors were happy to boost exposure modestly this week, taking net short positions back up to 70.3k, from 67.2k last week (the equivalent of a USD8.5bn short position)."
"The commodity bloc saw CAD shorts covered on net, with the drop in positioning from a net short of 35.4k in the April 22nd week to 30.2k this week representing one of the bigger shifts in investor sentiment this week. Speculative net Long AUD exposure dropped to +10.7k (from 16.3k last) while net NZD longs fell modestly to 18.4k contracts (from 20.1k—which smacks a little of the spec market rebuilding AUDNZD shorts)."
"Investors have slowly moved back to riskier investments in the past few weeks but a net long of 49.6k contracts in the MXN is down a little from levels seen earlier in April and still compares poorly with the net long of 138k contracts seen this week a year ago."
Key Quotes
"CTAs kept positioning adjustments to a minimum in the week through April 29th, according to the latest snapshot of futures market activity from the CTFC. There was reduction in the aggregate short position that the market has accumulated recently (USD4.2bn overall, down from USD5.4bn earlier in the month). But this is still effectively the biggest net bet against the USD that speculators have held since early 2013."
§ There was, in fact, no net change in EUR positioning, with the net long equivalent of 25.7k contracts in the latest week’s data matching the position from the April 22nd week exactly. Investors are perhaps almost as confused about the EUR outlook as we are.
"Investors lightened net long exposure to the GBP to a still hefty 44.2k contracts, down from the recent peak of 50.5k. Net CHF longs were cut to 13.7k contracts, from 14.0k contracts in the previous week."
"Short JPY remains the biggest speculative punt out there at the moment, according to the CFTC data and investors were happy to boost exposure modestly this week, taking net short positions back up to 70.3k, from 67.2k last week (the equivalent of a USD8.5bn short position)."
"The commodity bloc saw CAD shorts covered on net, with the drop in positioning from a net short of 35.4k in the April 22nd week to 30.2k this week representing one of the bigger shifts in investor sentiment this week. Speculative net Long AUD exposure dropped to +10.7k (from 16.3k last) while net NZD longs fell modestly to 18.4k contracts (from 20.1k—which smacks a little of the spec market rebuilding AUDNZD shorts)."
"Investors have slowly moved back to riskier investments in the past few weeks but a net long of 49.6k contracts in the MXN is down a little from levels seen earlier in April and still compares poorly with the net long of 138k contracts seen this week a year ago."