According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) report covering data up to March 10 investors increased their net long bets on the US dollar to $43.38 billion from $40.85 billion the previous week against the major currencies. The net long US dollar position rose to the highest level in four weeks after strong jobs market data released in US on March 6 reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates in June rather than later. As is evident from the CFTC Sentiment table every currency is still held net short against the US dollar.
Euro sentiment shifted to bearish as European Central Bank started the bond buying program. Euro net short position increased by -$0.10 bn to -$24.2bn. Euro still makes the bulk of net short positions against US dollar. The sentiment towards Japanese yen, British Pound and and Swiss franc deteriorated further. Australian dollar net shorts increased the most and widened $1.05bn, comprising the third highest net short position among the majors at -$5.86bn.
The Japanese yen net short position widened $0.64bn with net short bets in Japanese yen at -$6.13bn still the second highest among the major currencies. The British Pound net short position widened by $0.48 bn, bringing it to -$3.07bn.