US dollar bearish bets increased to $8.60 billion from $7.67 against the major currencies during the one week period, according to the report of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) covering data up to May 26 and released on Friday May 29. The change in overall dollar position was mainly due to significant decrease in bearish bets on Canadian dollar, and increase in bullish bets on Japanese yen and euro as the Japanese government announced it was considering a fresh stimulus package worth over $929 billion while data showed euro-zone’s economic activity contracted less drastically in May. The Pound, Canadian and Australian dollars maintained net short positions against the dollar. The bearish dollar bets rose as minutes of the Fed’s April policy meeting showed officials discussed how to convince markets that interest rates will stay low for a long time. Bearish bets on dollar increased as US Labor department report showed nearly 40 million Americans lost their jobs in the previous nine weeks.
CFTC Sentiment vs Exchange Rate
May 26 2020 | Bias | Ex RateTrend | Position $ mln | Weekly Change |
CAD | bearish | negative | -2463 | 49 |
AUD | bearish | positive | -2694 | -111 |
EUR | bullish | positive | 10318 | 412 |
GBP | bearish | positive | -1716 | -263 |
CHF | bullish | positive | 1131 | 8 |
JPY | bullish | negative | 4023 | 835 |
Total | 8598 |