USD net longs surged, EUR shorts added - ANZ
Analysts at ANZ lists down the CFTC positioning data for the week ending 4th April 2017.
Key Quotes
“Leveraged funds turned into net buyers of USD, reversing the previous week’s USD selling. Overall net long USD positions rose by USD0.3bn to USD14.4bn. Price action post the cut-off date suggests a further build-up of USD longs, in the wake of US attacks on Syria and the market moving its focus to Fedspeak on unwinding its balance sheet.”
“For the week, USD buying was seen mainly against the EUR and commodity currencies. After three consecutive weeks of buying, funds turned into net sellers of the EUR. Funds added USD0.9bn to take their overall net short EUR position to USD9bn. This is in line with the EUR’s price action. A close contest in the upcoming French Presidential elections will likely continue to keep the EUR vulnerable this month.”
“Funds were net buyers of the JPY against the USD for the second consecutive week, reducing their net JPY shorts by USD1.3bn to USD0.2bn, the lowest since November 2016. CHF saw marginal buying of USD0.1bn whereas GBP’s positioning was largely unchanged.”
“Commodity currencies were on the back foot with a combined net selling of USD0.8bn. All three currencies saw net selling led by the AUD which reversed its buying from the past two weeks with net selling of USD0.4bn to trim long AUD position to USD3.5bn. CAD and NZD continued to see net selling for the fifth straight week at USD0.2bn each. With this, CAD and NZD net short positions now stand at USD3.2bn and USD0.2bn respectively.”
“Leveraged funds were overall bullish on EM currencies for the fourth straight week, with a combined net buying of USD0.4bn. MXN continued to lead with funds adding USD0.3bn to take its net long position to USD0.5bn. This is the fourth straight week of MXN buying. Meanwhile, BRL saw net selling for the first time in three weeks whereas RUB longs rose for the fifth consecutive week.”
“Funds trimmed their net short position in 10Y UST for the fifth consecutive week. Meanwhile, net long crude oil positions rose for the first time in six weeks in line with the rebound in crude oil prices.”