The weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures traders and speculators sharply scaled back their total bullish bets of the US dollar last week. This is the third straight weekly decrease for US dollar bets after USD long positions reached their highest level on record (Reuters data) on May 28th.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators,slashed their overall US dollar long positions to a total of $14.55 billion as of Tuesday June 18th. This was a decrease from a total long position of $28.28 Billion registered on June 11th, according to position calculations by Reuters that derives this total by the amount of US dollar positions against the combined positions of euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
See Full COT Report and Charts Here…
The US dollar surged against the other major currencies in forex trading action last week as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments and outlook rocked the financial markets. Mr. Bernanke said the US Fed bond-buying program could possibly be scaled back in 2013 and likely to wrap up in 2014 if growth, employment and inflation data all continue to improve. The end of this program is seen as US dollar positive and helped the US dollar gain ground against all the other major currencies last week.
Looking forward to this week, the question will be whether last week’s US dollar strength will extend into this week and, perhaps, beyond.
See Full Post and Commentary Here…
Tuesday, June 25
United States — durable goods report
United States — consumer confidence report
United States — new home sales
Wednesday, June 26
United Kingdom — Bank of England financial report
United States — GDP report
United States — personal consumption expenditure
New Zealand — trade balance
Thursday, June 27
Euro zone — Germany employment report
Japan — national consumer price index
United Kingdom — GDP report
euro zone — consumer confidence
United States — weekly jobless claims
United States — pending home sales
Friday, June 28
Euro zone — Germany consumer price index
Canada — GDP report
United States — University of Michigan survey
