By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. dollar net shorts fell to their lowest level since late April, according to calculations by Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.

The value of the net short dollar position dropped to $10.44 billion in the week ended June 29, from net shorts of $12.80 billion the previous week. U.S. dollar net short contracts slid for a second straight week.

U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound and Swiss franc, as well as the Canadian and Australian dollars.

In a broader measure of dollar positioning that includes net contracts on the New Zealand dollar, Mexican peso, Brazilian real and Russian ruble, the greenback posted a net short position of $10.94 billion this week, compared with net shorts of $13.04 billion the week before.

The dollar has gained ground ever since the Federal Reserve took a surprising hawkish stance at its monetary policy meeting last month. Fed forecasts have penciled in two U.S. rate increases by the end of 2023.

For the month of June, the dollar index posted its best monthly performance since November 2016.

The dollar though on Friday gave up its gains after the release of what has been considered a mixed U.S. non-farm payrolls report.

“Although our non-consensus view that the U.S. dollar would strengthen this summer has been more than matched by recent market moves, we have not yet seen enough evidence to lower our long held six-month forecast of euro/dollar at $1.17,” said Jane Foley, head of FX strategy at Rabobank in London.

The euro last traded up 0.1% at $1.1862.

In the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin net shorts fell to 1,345 contracts in the week ended June 29, from net shorts of 1,528 the previous week.

Bitcoin’s rise has stalled this year in the wake of crackdowns on the crypto sector in China, Japan, Britain, and more recently Thailand.

Since hitting an all-time high of just under $65,000 in mid-April, bitcoin has fallen about 50%. On Friday, bitcoin was down 0.9% at $33,253. For the month of June, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency has fallen 5%.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)

$6.085 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 27,380 34,118

Short 97,275 87,980

Net -69,895 -53,862

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

$-13.29 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 209,058 207,863

Short 121,912 118,806

Net 87,146 89,057

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

$-1.563 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 51,596 51,445

Short 33,873 33,518

Net 17,723 17,927

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

$-1.846 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 18,941 20,980

Short 7,876 7,428

Net 11,065 13,552

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

$-3.513 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 68,301 69,074

Short 22,500 25,849

Net 45,801 43,225

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

$1.327 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 48,824 56,133

Short 66,624 73,708

Net -17,800 -17,575

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

$0.703 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 71,449 61,955

Short 90,903 90,546

Net -19,454 -28,591

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)

$-0.231 billion

29 Jun 2021 Prior week

week

Long 19,914 19,171

Short 16,790 15,885

Net 3,124 3,286

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and David Gregorio)

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