Speculators chopped bullish bets on the US dollar for a sixth straight week, pushing net longs to their lowest since late January 2009, according to Reuters calculations and data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position fell to $0.4 billion in the week ended April 12, from $2.15 billion the previous week. The value of the dollar's net long position was the lowest since the week ended January 27, 2009.
Net long yen contracts rose to 66,190, the highest since Reuters records began in March 1995 and up from 60,073 the previous week. Euro net short contracts fell to 52,051, their lowest in seven weeks. So far in 2016, the US dollar index has fallen about 4 percent, putting it on track for its worst yearly performance since 2009. The index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six other major currencies, gained more than 9 percent last year.
The dollar hit a 17-month low against the yen of 107.61 yen on April 11. Analysts partly attributed the yen's rise to bets that the Bank of Japan would refrain from intervening to halt its recent rally. The Reuters calculation for the aggregate US dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.