The latest Commitment of Traders report, issued by the CFTC, showed JPY net long contracts were cut by 12,000 contracts, or $2 billion, bringing the net long position to $2.7 billion as of Tuesday, February 21. Real-time estimates from Nomura’s FX strategy team suggest net long positioning in JPY is likely to have fallen by another $1.3 billion since Tuesday, as USDJPY reached its highest level in seven months.
USDJPY moved as high as ¥81.58 on Friday and traded above ¥81 for most of Monday’s Asia session before dipping to ¥80.60 as the London session got under way.
Elsewhere, the report shows short positions in EUR were squeezed, as EURUSD broke through $1.34. Net short positioning fell by $0.9 billion as of Tuesday, though the net short in EUR remains extreme at $23.5 billion.
Aside from the yen, the biggest weekly change was in GBP, which saw the net short position cut by almost a quarter. The market remains short 31,000 contracts with a dollar value of $3.01 billion as of Tuesday.
Meanwhile, positioning in CHF is drifting further towards extreme short territory as investors reduced the CHF net short by $0.6 billion to $2.7 billion since Tuesday, bringing the currency to its shortest position since 2007.