Speculative U.S. 10-year T-note net longs hit six-month low -CFTC
* Spec net shorts in 2-year, 5-year T-notes hit record high * U.S. 2-year Treasury yield hits near nine-year peak (Adds background, details on latest data) Oct 20 (Reuters) - Speculators' net bullish bets on U.S. 10-year Treasury note futures fell to a six-month low on expectations of further interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday.
Bets on U.S. President Donald Trump possibly naming a hawkish nominee to head the Fed also stoked a selloff in the Treasuries market this week.
The amount of speculators' bullish, or long, positions in 10-year Treasury futures exceeded bearish, or short, positions by 106,291 contracts on Oct. 17, according to the CFTC's latest Commitments of Traders data.
That was the fewest net longs since speculators were net short by 41,300 on April 18.
A week earlier, speculators held 192,606 net long positions in 10-year T-note futures.
On Friday, the 10-year Treasury note yield reached a two-week high of 2.392 percent as investors reduced bond holdings on worries about more inflation and federal borrowing after the U.S. Senate passed a budget resolution late on Thursday.
The Senate's move raised expectations the Republican-controlled Congress Trump would be able to enact their tax-cut package, which would widen the federal deficit by up to $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
On the other hand, the tax cut is expected to boost economic growth, which would allow the U.S. central bank to raise interest rates further.
Two-year Treasury yields climbed to a near nine-year peak at 1.584 percent on Friday, Reuters data showed.
Speculative net shorts on two-year T-notes rose for four straight weeks to the record high of 312,453 contracts on Tuesday.
Speculators raised their net shorts in five-year Treasury futures to 445,579, the most on record.
Below is a table of the speculative positions in Treasury futures on the Chicago Board of Trade and in Eurodollar futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the latest week: U.S. 2-year T-notes (Contracts of $200,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 276,978 241,447 Short 589,431 492,491 Net -312,453 -251,044 U.S. 5-year T-notes (Contracts of $100,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 355,004 388,779 Short 800,583 690,364 Net -445,579 -301,585 U.S. 10-year T-notes (Contracts of $100,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 774,341 847,528 Short 668,050 654,922 Net 106,291 192,606 U.S. T-bonds (Contracts of $100,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 184,195 172,775 Short 133,220 145,202 Net 50,975 27,573 U.S. Ultra T-bonds (Contracts of $100,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 61,277 61,191 Short 153,454 153,620 Net -92,177 -92,429 Eurodollar (Contracts of $1,000,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 948,024 913,569 Short 3,170,922 3,018,168 Net -2,222,898 -2,104,599 Fed funds (Contracts of $1,000,000) 17 Oct 2017 Prior week week Long 105,199 79,145 Short 166,795 203,937 Net -61,596 -124,792 (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Andrew Hay and Meredith Mazzilli)
