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NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Currency speculators pared bets against the U.S. dollar for a second straight week to their lowest level in a month, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
The value of the dollar's net short position slid to $6.43 billion in the week ended Oct. 9, from a net short of $16.31 billion the previous week. This week's net short U.S. dollar position was the lowest since Sept. 11.
To be short a currency is to bet it will decline in value, while being long is a view its value will rise.
The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, sterling, Swiss franc, Canadian and Australian dollars.
The reduction in net short U.S. dollar positions was mostly across the board, except that against the Mexican peso. Speculators actually boosted its net longs on the peso to 136,392 contracts.
This week's CFTC report comes after favorable U.S. jobs data for September, which showed that the unemployment rate fell below 8 percent.
Some of the big changes included the drop in yen net longs by more than half to 12,914 contracts, and the sharp reduction in the positive bets on the Australian dollar.
Interestingly enough, net shorts on the euro picked up amid uncertainty about a possible bailout request for Spain. Net euro shorts rose to 72,570 contracts this week from shorts of 50,265 the previous week.
JAPAN YEN (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) -2,063,466,700.75
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week Long 40,778 52,696 Short 27,864 23,361 Net 12,914 29,335
EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) 11,687,398,500.00
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week
Long 39,946 48,335 Short 112,516 98,600 Net -72,570 -50,265
POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) -2,257,341,075.00
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week Long 54,190 64,726 Short 31,618 34,632 Net 22,572 30,094
SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) 40,695,818.70
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week
Long 11,676 12,641 Short 11,982 13,625 Net -306 -984
CANADA DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) -9,775,914,945.82
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week
Long 106,300 112,706 Short 10,672 11,530 Net 95,628 101,176
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) -4,061,028,000.00
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week Long 78,524 98,600 Short 38,710 34,857 Net 39,814 63,743
MEXICO PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) -5,296,612,144.09
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week
Long 139,392 137,986 Short 3,000 2,121 Net 136,392 135,865
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 NZ dollars) -1,365,374,100.00
10/9/12 week 10/2/12 week
Long 21,075 25,298 Short 4,365 3,917 Net 16,710 21,381
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Diane Craft)
((gertrude.chavez@thomsonreuters.com)(+1-646-223-6322, Reuters Messaging: gertrude.chavez.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: MARKETS FOREX/IMM