Speculators reduced their bullish bets on the US dollar in the latest week to the smallest position since early April, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the dollar's net long position, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars, was $33.32 billion in the week to June 4.
That compares with a net long position of $34.61 billion the previous week. The US speculative community has been net long dollars since mid-July last year. In a wider measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the US dollar posted a net short position valued at $30.97 billion, down from $31.33 billion, a week earlier.
The CFTC data, which captures positioning through Tuesday, reflects the 0.9% fall in the dollar index over that period on increased expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in 2019.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell dropped his standard reference to the Fed being "patient" in approaching any rate decision on Tuesday, saying instead the central bank will respond as "as appropriate" to trade pressure. Since Tuesday two disappointing employment data reports have driven the dollar index another half a percent lower.