Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Tuesday revealed that speculators turned bearish on gold in the week ending November 27, as market players braced for a hike in interest rates by the Federal Reserve later this month.
According to the report, 48.4% of market participants held long positions in gold futures last week, down from 52.5% in the preceding week. A reading between 30% and 50% is bearish for the instrument.
Gold has been under pressure recently amid mounting expectations the Fed will raise rates for the first time in nearly a decade at its mid-December meeting. Expectations of higher borrowing rates going forward is considered bearish for gold, as the precious metal struggles to compete with yield-bearing assets when rates are on the rise.
Meanwhile, 29.8% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD as of last week, improving slightly from 27.5% in the preceding week. The European Central Bank is widely expected to cut its deposit rate and extend its quantitative easing program at a key meeting on Thursday.
Elsewhere, 36.5% of investors were long in GBP/USD, little changed from 36.2% a week earlier, 56.7% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, down from 60.8% in the preceding week, while 46.7% of investors were long USD/CHF, up modestly from 45.3% in the previous week.
Amongst the commodity-linked currencies, 53.1% were long USD/CAD, rising from 49.7% a week earlier, 31.2% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 21.6% in the preceding week, while 35.9% were long NZD/USD, declining from 38.6% a week earlier.
The report also showed that 33.1% of investors were long the S&P 500, improving from 30.9% a week earlier.
A reading between 50%-70% is bullish for the instrument, a reading between 30% and 50% is bearish, a reading above 70% indicates overbought conditions and a reading below 30% indicates oversold conditions.
The Investing.com series of indexes is developed in-house. Each index measures overall exposure to major currency pairs, commodities and indexes, using data from futures exchanges and OTC providers on all long and short open positions.