Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Monday revealed that speculators turned bearish on gold in the week ending August 21.
According to the report, 49.6% of market participants held long positions in gold futures as of last week, falling from 50.6% in the preceding week. A reading between 30% and 50% is bearish for the instrument.
Meanwhile, 35.6% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD as of last week, improving from 26.4% in the preceding week, while 45.2% of investors were long in GBP/USD, compared to 41.5% a week earlier.
Elsewhere, 59.1% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY, down from 66.5% in the preceding week, while 53.5% of investors were long USD/CHF, up from 50.4% in the previous week.
Amongst the commodity-linked currencies, 52.4% were long USD/CAD, little changed from 52.9% a week earlier, 39.7% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 35.3% in the preceding week, while 40.7% were long NZD/USD, down from 42.8% a week earlier.
In the equities market, 44.0% of investors were long the S&P 500 as of last week, improving from 25.9% a week earlier.
A reading between 50%-70% is bullish for the instrument, a reading between 30% and 50% is bearish, a reading above 70% indicates overbought conditions and a reading below 30% indicates oversold conditions.
The Investing.com series of indexes is developed in-house. Each index measures overall exposure to major currency pairs, commodities and indexes, using data from futures exchanges and OTC providers on all long and short open positions.