USD Net Longs Start Rising Again

According to the report of The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) covering data up to June 23 the value of US dollar net long position increased to $26.07 billion from $23.8 billion in the previous week. As is evident from the Sentiment table, the sentiment deteriorated for all major currencies except for the British Pound and Swiss franc. All currencies are still held net short and only the Swiss franc is held net long against US dollar.

The euro sentiment deteriorated following improvements for three straight weeks. The Greek debt crisis has started weighing on euro sentiment as the June 30 deadline for Greece’s repayment of 1.5 billion euros to International Monetary Fund has approached and Athens has not managed to reach an agreement with its creditors about extending the bailout. The Greek government has indicated it cannot make the IMF loan repayment without additional loans that would be unlocked only if it agreed to reform measures creditors insisted on for extending the bailout. The net short bets in euro widened $1.3bn to $13.8bn, with euro comprising 53% of long US dollar position. The euro net short position rose as investors cut both gross longs and gross shorts.

The Japanese yen sentiment also deteriorated with net short position widening $0.6bn to $8.8bn as investors pared back both gross longs and gross shorts. The Japanese yen retains the second highest short bets against US dollar, comprising about 33% of aggregate US dollar long position. The British pound net short bets narrowed $0.3bn to $2.1bn.

The sentiment toward the Canadian dollar deteriorated after improvement in the previous week with net short position widening $0.4bn to $1.4 bn. Investors cut gross longs as they increased gross short positions. The Australian dollar net short bets widened by $0.3bn to $0.7bn as investors reduced both gross longs and gross shorts. The Swiss franc net longs increased by $0.22bn to $0.9bn as investors increased gross longs and covered shorts.