USD long positions added, EUR shorts increased - ANZ

Khoon Goh, Research Analyst at ANZ, lists down the CFTC speculative positioning data for the week ending 7 June 2016.

Key Quotes 

“Leveraged funds continued to add to their net long USD positions for the third consecutive week. This is surprising given the selloff in the USD following the poor May US payroll numbers released on 3 June. For the week, there was net USD buying worth USD3.2bn to take leveraged funds’ overall net long position to USD7.4bn, the highest since March 2016. The USD was bought against all the major currencies with the exceptions of JPY and NZD.

Leveraged funds increased their net EUR shorts for a third consecutive week by a further USD1.1bn to USD9.2bn. It seemed that they were keen to sell into the EUR rally following the 3 June ECB decision where policy settings were left unchanged.

GBP positioning has turned bearish again. The previous week’s USD0.2bn net long GBP position has unwound, turning into a net short position totalling USD0.4bn. Positioning is likely responding to recent polls showing gains for the ‘Leave’ camp ahead of the 23 June referendum. 

It was a mixed picture for commodity currencies. Despite a less dovish than expected statement from the RBA at their 7 June meeting which resulted in a rally in AUD, the currency saw net selling for the sixth consecutive week. This resulted in leveraged accounts turning net short in AUD for the first time in 14 weeks. Net long CAD positions were halved to USD0.5bn, the lowest in five weeks. However, leveraged funds remained upbeat about the NZD, adding USD0.4bn to their net longs ahead of the RBNZ meeting, taking their overall position to USD1.2bn, the highest since June 2014. 

On EM currencies, leveraged funds stayed net short in MXN with little change in positioning, whereas they added to their net RUB position by USD0.03bn and net BRL position by USD0.01bn.”