Speculative bets against 2-year Treasuries hold steady while 10-year shorts dip

By David Randall NEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - Speculators' net bearish bets on U.S. 10-year Treasury note futures fell in the latest week, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released on Friday. The amount of speculators' bearish, or short, positions in 10-year Treasury futures exceeded bullish, or long, positions by 362,039 contracts on April 16, according to the CFTC's latest Commitments of Traders data. A week earlier, speculators held 506,885 net short positions in 10-year T-note futures. The declining bearish bets came as yields jumped near 5-month highs following signs of sticky inflation in the US and strength in the labor market. A number of Fed officials, including Fed Chair Jerome Powell, have noted over the last week that the central bank does not feel the need to rush to cut interst rates given the economic stability. Bond yields move in the opposite direction of prices. Bearish bets against 2-year Treasuries, which are more interest-rate sensitive, slightly rose, to a net short position of 946,303 contracts, compared with 946,290 the week before. 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) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 503,827 480,808 Short 1,450,130 1,427,098 Net -946,303 -946,290 U.S. 5-year T-notes (Contracts of $100,000) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 461,614 453,736 Short 1,655,836 1,693,156 Net -1,194,222 -1,239,420 U.S. 10-year T-notes (Contracts of $100,000) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 533,604 494,910 Short 895,643 1,001,795 Net -362,039 -506,885 U.S. T-bonds (Contracts of $100,000) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 257,665 228,657 Short 273,429 303,847 Net -15,764 -75,190 U.S. Ultra T-bonds (Contracts of $100,000) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 138,661 138,457 Short 433,461 434,312 Net -294,800 -295,855 Eurodollar (Contracts of $1,000,000) Prior week 13 Jun 2023 week Long 118,404 141,397 Short 130,076 144,442 Net -11,672 -3,045 Fed funds (Contracts of $1,000,000) Prior week 16 Apr 2024 week Long 397,356 330,432 Short 338,628 361,128 Net 58,728 -30,696