Traders were increasingly bullish over US dollar, as suggested in the CFTC Commitments of Traders report in the week ended May 22. USD Index (DXY) futures stayed in NET LENGTH for a second consecutive week. Rising speculative long positions and dropping shorts resulted in NET LENGTH of 2 586 contracts, up from 18 contracts in the prior week. During the week, the DXY index gained +0.42%, as the greenback strengthened against major currencies with the exception of Swiss franc and Canadian dollar.
NET LENGTH for EUR futures continued to trim, dropping -5 370 contracts for 109 744 for the week. The increase in speculative short positions (+12 013 contracts) almost doubled that of longs (+6 643 contracts). Bets on GBP futures dropped on both sides, leading to a slight increase (+80 contracts) of NET LENGTH to 5 701 contracts.
Traditional safe-haven currencies lost ground. JPY futures returned to NET SHORT of 2 767 contracts last week, due to quite a sharp increase in speculative short positions (up +15 357 contracts). On the other hand, CHF futures deepened into NET SHORT of 37 311 contracts, increasing +918 from the prior week.
On commodity currencies, NZD futures drifted to NET SHORT of 1 363 contracts, thanks to a drop in speculative long positions (down -1 677 contracts) and a gain in shorts (up +1 639 contracts). NET SHORT for AUD futures, however, dropped by -1 994 contracts to 21 112. NET SHORT for CAD futures rose by +2 556 contracts to 26 212 for the week.
