CFTC Positioning Report: JPY net shorts in multi-month tops

These are the highlights of the CFTC Positioning Report for the week ended on September 27^th:

• Speculators trimmed their gross longs in the Japanese yen for the fourth consecutive week, taking net shorts to the highest levels since early June. The coordinated BoJ/MoF FX intervention failed to scare yen bears, which found another excuse to keep selling the yen on another uneventful BoJ meeting and the resumption of the march north in US yields following the FOMC event. After a dip to the 140.30 region post-intervention, USD/JPY resumed the upside to the upper-144.00s, where it then attempted to consolidate.
• Still around the safe havens, net shorts in the Swiss franc retreated to multi-week lows, while USD/CHF surpassed the 0.9950 level for the first time since mid-June in the wake of the Fed’s meeting.
• Net longs in the euro climbed to levels last seen in early June despite the hawkish message from the FOMC gathering and incipient signs of a looming recession in the euro region. EUR/USD embarked on a corrective decline to the sub-0.9600 zone, printing at the same time new 20-year lows.
• The speculative community trimmed their negative exposure to the British pound to the lowest level in the last four weeks. The 50 bps rate hike by the BoE came somewhat short of what everybody was expecting. That, coupled with the gloomy prospects for the UK economy, the fragile political landscape and dollar strength all dragged GBP/USD to an all-time low near 1.0350 on September 26.
• In the commodity complex, net longs in the WTI retreated to 3-week lows, while recession chatter and the impact on the demand for crude oil dragged the barrel of the West Texas Intermediate to 8-month lows in the proximity of the $76.00 mark. In the same line, net longs in gold remained in multi-year lows, as the precious metal dropped to levels last traded in April 2020 near the $1,600 mark per ounce troy, always with the Fed’s tighter-for-longer narrative weighing on the traders’ sentiment.