Currency speculators pared bets against the US dollar and trimmed long positions in the Japanese yen in the latest week, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday. The value of the dollar's net short position fell to $27.77 billion in the week ended March 29, from $29.82 billion a week earlier, according to CFTC and Reuters calculations.
Long positions in favour of the yen fell to 7,052 contracts from 34,525 the prior week as investors grew wary of possible intervention by Japanese authorities to weaken the yen. The dollar fell as low as 76.25 yen before other G7 central banks intervened. On Friday, it rose as high as 84.73 yen, the dollar's strongest level in more than 6 months.
Another notable change was the steep decline in sterling long contracts, falling to 743 from 29,724. Euro longs continued to bulk up, rising to 56,630 from last week's 48,353. That suggested an imminent pullback in the single euro zone currency. To be short a currency is to bet it will decrease in value, while being long a currency is a bet its value will rise. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from the net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.
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