NEW YORK (Reuters) – Speculators’ net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell in the latest week to the smallest position in more than a year, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $3.08 billion for the week ended Nov. 1, the smallest since Aug. 17, 2021. Last week speculators had reported a net long position of $10.21 billion.
U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and Canadian and Australian dollars.
On Friday, the dollar fell after the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for October showed the world’s largest economy created more new jobs than expected, but also flashed signs of a slowdown with a higher unemployment rate and lower wage inflation, signs that support the view the Federal Reserve could slow the pace of future rate hikes.
CFTC data on Friday also showed Japanese yen net shorts fell in the latest week to 77,620 contracts, down from a short position of 102,618 contracts.
Among the major currencies, the yen has struggled the most against the dollar this year as the Bank of Japan remains the only central bank that is not in a tightening mode.
The yen has plummeted by nearly 22% against the dollar this year, prompting the Japanese government to spend a record $43 billion supporting the yen in October.
JAPANESE YEN (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 40,460 37,579
Short 118,080 140,197
Net -77,620 -102,618
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 239,770 226,734
Short 133,980 151,825
Net 105,790 74,909
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 34,979 43,511
Short 79,815 91,316
Net -44,836 -47,805
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 6,612 5,538
Short 21,396 16,838
Net -14,784 -11,300
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 38,522 35,607
Short 56,171 53,762
Net -17,649 -18,155
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 34,148 32,159
Short 84,680 83,605
Net -50,532 -51,446
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 182,316 161,558
Short 138,271 148,984
Net 44,045 12,574
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
01 Nov 2022 Prior week
week
Long 21,115 15,639
Short 24,962 28,523
Net -3,847 -12,884
(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Leslie Adler and Chris Reese)
