USD Bullish Sentiment Moderates With Net Shorts of All Major Currencies Narrowing Except for EUR

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report covering data up to April 21 showed that investors reduced US dollar net long positions to $37.88 billion from $39.69. The net long position declined for the fourth week in a row and hit the lowest level since September 2014. As is evident from the CFTC Sentiment table, the fall in US net long position resulted from broad based improvement in sentiment toward major currencies while only the euro net short position increased. The Swiss franc remains the only currency held net long against US dollar with every other currency still held net short against the US dollar.

Euro net short position widened $0.52bn to -$28.8bn, with euro still comprising the bulk of net short positions against US dollar. Investors increased both gross long and short positions.

The Japanese yen net short positions narrowed $0.9bn to -$1.5bn. The steepest reduction in net short position among the major currencies was the result of mainly short covering, accompanied by decrease in gross long positions. The British pound net short bets narrowed $0.6bn to -$2.73bn as investors covered shorts and increased gross long positions. Net short bets in British pound are still the second highest among the major currencies.

The sentiment towards Australian dollar and Canadian dollar improved also as both currencies narrowed their net short positions by $0.25bn and $0.56bn to -$2.67bn and -$2.20bn respectively. The Australian dollar net short bets remain the third highest against the US dollar as investors increased both gross long and gross short positions.