Investing.com - The Investing.com weekly sentiment index published on Monday revealed that speculators added to their bullish yen bets in the week ending March 11, as traders looked ahead to this week’s Bank of Japan policy meeting.
According to the report, 34.1% of market participants held long positions in USD/JPY as of last week, falling slightly from 37.2% in the preceding week.
The Bank of Japan is widely expected to stand pat on monetary policy after January’s shock decision to adopt negative rates following the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Tuesday, but some speculate it could still cut rates deeper into negative territory as part of its ongoing effort to reflate a stagnant economy.
Meanwhile, 26.7% of investors held long positions in EUR/USD, improving from 22.6% a week earlier, 32.1% of investors were long GBP/USD, compared to 36.2% in the previous week, while 48.6% of investors were long USD/CHF, up from 43.1%.
Amongst the commodity-linked currencies, 55.2% were long USD/CAD, little changed from 54.7% a week earlier, 46.1% held long positions in AUD/USD, compared to 39.3% in the preceding week, while 37.1% were long NZD/USD, rising modestly from 35.6% a week earlier.
The report also showed that 60.5% of market participants held long positions in gold futures as of last week, improving from 53.1% in the preceding week.
Elsewhere, only 19.8% of investors were long the S&P 500, deteriorating from 26.4% 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.