By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Speculators' net long bets on the U.S. dollar fell for a third straight week, according to calculations by Reuters and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
The value of the net long dollar position was $12.91 billion for the week ended April 19. Last week, speculators' net long position stood at $13.22 billion.
U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc, and Canadian and Australian dollars.
So far this year, the dollar index, a measure of the greenback's value against six major currencies, has gained 5.7%, after a 6.3% rise in 2021.
The dollar has benefited from safe-haven flows following the war in Ukraine, as well as expectations of aggressive Federal Reserve tightening to control the surge in inflation.
The months-long rally has left some investors wondering if the U.S. currency may be close to hitting a near-term peak.
On Friday, the dollar rose to a more than two-year high, continuing to draw support from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments on Thursday that seemed to back a half a percentage point tightening at next month's policy meeting, as well as his remarks on a likely consecutive rate hikes this year.
Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)
$10.394 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 12,723 9,925
Short 119,910 121,752
Net -107,187 -111,827
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)
$-4.22 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 221,003 221,645
Short 189,702 182,585
Net 31,301 39,060
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)
$4.785 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 36,811 35,514
Short 95,725 88,568
Net -58,914 -53,054
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)
$1.504 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 2,900 1,642
Short 14,350 15,584
Net -11,450 -13,942
CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)
$-1.682 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 44,063 37,724
Short 22,837 25,566
Net 21,226 12,158
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)
$2.125 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 39,201 39,770
Short 68,038 68,485
Net -28,837 -28,715
MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)
$-0.541 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 73,710 81,582
Short 52,046 66,622
Net 21,664 14,960
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)
$-0.025 billion
19 Apr 2022 Prior week
week
Long 19,081 16,295
Short 18,716 16,584
Net 365 -289