Speculators trimmed their net short dollar bets earlier this week from their highest levels since August 2011, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The value of the net short dollar positions, derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars, was $21.73 billion in week ended March 27.
This was a bit lower than the $21.99 billion calculated in the week of March 20. To be short a currency means traders believe it will fall in value. Net short positioning on the Japanese yen declined to 3,668 contracts, the smallest position since November 2016, from a net short position of 21,999 contracts, last week, the data showed.
The dollar's fall against the yen in recent months has come despite higher US bond yields. The spread between the 10-year US and Japanese government bond yields reached its widest in a decade this quarter as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates steadily while the Bank of Japan is stuck with monetary easing. The greenback dropped 5.7 percent versus the yen in the first three months of 2018 following a 3.6 percent drop for all of 2017.
The dollar lost ground broadly in the first quarter, marking a fifth straight quarter of losses on expectations of faster growth outside the United States and anxiety about a trade war stemming from tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. The index that tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies including the yen fell 2.3 percent in the quarter ending March 31.
Meanwhile, speculators' net short position on bitcoin CBOE futures rose to 1,490 contracts, up from a net short position of 1,370 contracts in the prior week, the data showed. 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.
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