USD net longs increased, JPY sold for third consecutive week - ANZ

Research Team at ANZ lists down the CFTC positioning data for the week ending 21 March 2017.

Key Quotes

“Leveraged funds were net buyers of USD for the third straight week. Overall net long USD positions increased by USD2.6bn to USD19.2bn, the highest in eight weeks. However, the USD has weakened after Trump’s failure to pass the healthcare bill, suggesting some paring back of long USD positions since late last week.”   

“USD buying was seen broadly with the main exception of the EUR. Same as the week prior, funds reduced their net EUR shorts by USD2.1bn to USD9.3bn. However, GBP saw net selling for the third straight week.Net short GBP positions increased by USD0.5bn to USD5.3bn ahead of the UK’s scheduled EU exit trigger on 29 March.”

“JPY was sold for the third consecutive week, contrary to its price action during the week. Overall net short positions increased by USD0.2bn to USD4.2bn. Funds also added USD0.9bn to the overall net short CHF positions to USD1.6bn.”  

“It was a mixed bag for commodity currencies. Partially reversing last week’s selling, AUD saw net buying of USD0.5bn to take its overall net long position to USD3.4bn. Meanwhile, CAD and NZD saw combined net selling of USD3.7bn. There was a net selling of USD3.1bn in CAD, turning the net CAD position to an overall short of USD2.4bn. Funds also reduced net long NZD positions by USD0.6bn to USD0.2bn, the lowest overall longs since March 2016.”

“EM currencies saw a second straight week of net buying led by the MXN. Funds reduced net short MXN positions for the second week running by USD0.3bn to USD0.04bn. RUB also saw net buying of USD0.1bn whereas BRL saw little change in positioning from the week before.”

“Net short UST positions were trimmed further by 129.4k contracts after the Fed raised rates, the least shorts since last November. Meanwhile, funds reduced net long crude oil positions for the fourth consecutive week, to the lowest since last December.”