GBP and CHF saw largest net buying - ANZ

Research Team at ANZ, lists down the CFTC positioning data for the week ending 20 September 2016.

Key Quotes

“Leveraged funds were net sellers of USD for the second consecutive week ahead of the FOMC meeting on 21 September. Funds pared their overall net long USD positions by USD1.6bn to USD6.1bn. Price action post the CFTC cut-off date with the DXY falling after the BoJ and FOMC meetings suggests further reductions of long USD positions.

GBP saw the largest net buying in the week. Leveraged funds almost halved their overall net short GBP positions, reducing it by USD2.4bn to USD2.7bn. This is the fourth consecutive week of net GBP buying and the largest since March 2016. Despite the BoE leaving interest rates unchanged at the 15 September meeting and the reduction in net short GBP positions, sterling continued to weaken.

CHF saw the second largest net buying with leveraged funds going from net short USD1.3bn to net long USD0.5bn. There were minor changes to EUR positioning, with leveraged funds reducing their overall net short EUR positions by USD0.1bn to USD12.3bn.

Reversing their trend from last week, funds decreased their net JPY longs by USD0.3bn to USD6.2bn ahead of the BoJ meeting on 21 September. JPY strength following the BoJ decision – suggesting a resumption of yen buying.

Net long positions in commodity currencies were halved. AUD saw the largest net selling, reducing its overall net long positions by USD1.8bn to USD0.2bn. NZD saw net selling of USD0.5bn, while CAD managed to see small net buying.

EM currencies continued to struggle against the greenback with a combined net selling of USD1bn across all the three currencies. MXN’s overall net short position of USD2.3bn is the largest so far this year.”