NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators' net long positioning on the U.S. dollar fell in the latest week, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position slid to $14.13 billion for the week ended April 5, from $16.11 billion the previous week. U.S. dollar net long positioning declined for the first time in five weeks.
The U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, as well as Canadian and Australian dollars.
So far this year, the dollar index, a measure of the greenback's value against six major currencies, has gained 4.4%, after a 6.3% gain in 2021.
The greenback has benefited all year from safe-haven flows during the war in Ukraine, as well as expectations of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening to control the surge in inflation.
U.S. rate futures have priced in an 85% chance of a 50 basis point hike at the May meeting, with roughly 220 basis points of cumulative hikes for 2022.
In cryptocurrencies, speculators reduced net short positioning on bitcoin to 244 contracts in the week ending April 5, compared with net shorts of 271 the week, CFTC data showed.
Bitcoin has stabilized above $40,000 after an up and down last couple of months, with the Ukraine war and soaring inflation as backdrop. The world's largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization has behaved more like a risk asset.
So far this year, bitcoin has fallen more than 7% versus the dollar. It was last down 1.5% at $42,822.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
$10.501 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 14,583 15,274
Short 118,412 117,405
Net -103,829 -102,131
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
$-3.73 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 210,914 200,043
Short 183,544 178,669
Net 27,370 21,374
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
$3.411 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 35,873 30,624
Short 77,631 70,694
Net -41,758 -40,070
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
$1.666 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 1,860 3,292
Short 14,253 14,871
Net -12,393 -11,579
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
$-0.555 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 37,325 32,429
Short 30,402 33,964
Net 6,923 -1,535
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
$2.843 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 34,871 33,960
Short 72,384 83,566
Net -37,513 -49,606
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
$-0.023 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 78,728 75,081
Short 77,818 83,328
Net 910 -8,247
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
$0.109 billion
05 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 15,428 15,504
Short 16,997 16,371
Net -1,569 -867