Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Monday revealed that speculators scaled back their bullish bets on the U.S. dollar in the week ending December 11 while looking ahead to this week's highly anticipated Federal Reserve meeting.
According to the report, 31.2% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD as of last week, up from 27.1% in the preceding week. The euro has been well-supported after the latest easing measures announced by the European Central Bank earlier this month fell short of market expectations.
Meanwhile, 40.5% of investors were long in GBP/USD, improving from 38.4% a week earlier, 59.0% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, compared to 56.1% in the preceding week, while 53.2% of investors were long USD/CHF, up from 46.6% in the previous week.
Amongst the commodity-linked currencies, 43.0% were long USD/CAD, falling from 45.2% a week earlier, 41.7% held long positions in AUD/USD, rising from 32.4% in the preceding week, while 38.8% were long NZD/USD, compared to 34.6% a week earlier.
Elsewhere, 53.6% of market participants held long positions in gold futures last week, improving from 50.0% in the preceding week.
The report also showed that 41.3% of investors were long the S&P 500, compared to just 29.4% 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.