USD longs extended, EUR shorts increased - ANZ

Research Team at ANZ, lists down the CFTC positioning data for the week ending on 4th October 2016.

Key Quotes

“Leveraged funds bought USD for the second consecutive week by a further USD1.6bn to take their net USD longs to USD10.8bn, the highest in six weeks. Since then, net USD longs might have been extended on the slew of firm US data, with positions likely to have been pared only modestly after the slightly weaker-than-expected payroll numbers on Friday.

Most of the USD was bought against the EUR and GBP. Net EUR shorts increased by USD1.4bn to USD13.4bn, while net GBP shorts rose by USD1.2bn to USD6.2bn, the highest since early March. Price action since then suggests a further build-up of short GBP positions.

Leveraged funds also pared back in net long JPY positions by USD0.6bn to USD7.4bn, reversing part of the JPY buying in the previous week. However, leveraged accounts halved their net shorts in the CHF to USD0.8bn.

Leveraged funds were a net buyer of USD0.5bn of commodity currencies as a whole, but it was a mixed bag. They raised their net CAD shorts by USD0.5bn to USD2.1bn, but increased their net AUD longs by USD1.1bn to USD2.1bn. They were broadly flat in NZD, maintaining net NZD longs of USD2bn. All three currencies have since lost ground on the back of USD strength.

On EM currencies, both the RUB and BRL saw net buying of USD0.3bn (to USD1.1bn) and USD0.1bn (to USD0.5bn) respectively. However, leveraged accounts built their net short MXN positions for the sixth consecutive week by a further USD0.1bn to USD2.5bn, the most bearish since at least 2011.”