CFTC: leveraged accounts were bullish in the JPY - ANZ

Analysts at ANZ offered the the positioning data is for week ending 31 May 2016.

Key Quotes:

"Leveraged funds added to their net long USD positions in the week ended 31 May after turning long in the previous week. During the week, they bought a net USD2.3bn of the greenback to take their net USD longs to USD4.3bn.

However, given the big miss in the US May payroll report, much of the USD longs would have been taken out last Friday.

For the week ended 31 May, leveraged funds increased their net EUR shorts for a second consecutive week by a further USD1.6bn to USD8.1bn, the biggest EUR shorts in ten weeks.

However, leveraged accounts were bullish in the JPY and GBP. They added USD0.3bn to their net JPY longs to USD3bn. They also turned net long in the GBP (USD0.2bn), the first time since last December. However, with latest polls suggesting that support to Brexit may be gaining ground, net GBP longs may have been reduced.

It was a mixed picture for commodity currencies. For the week, leveraged accounts continued to reduce their net longs in AUD by a further USD0.3bn to USD0.6bn, the least in 12 weeks (see Figure 10 in PDF). However, they added USD0.1bn to their net NZD and CAD longs to USD0.7bn and USD1bn respectively, reversing their actions in the previous week (see Figures 11 and 9 in PDF). Price action post the US payroll report suggests broad buying of commodity currencies against the USD.

On EM currencies, leveraged funds raised their net shorts in MXN by a further USD0.2bn to USD1.2bn while staying net long in BRL and RUB with little changes in positioning.

Leveraged accounts were running the most shorts in 10Y UST in a year, with net shorts of 159,930 contracts. Price action post the US payroll release suggests that some shorts had been taken out."