STOCKS | Hedge Funds Cut Yen Shorts Before Bessent’s ‘House’ Remark

Hedge funds had already sharply reduced their short yen positions before U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly challenged traders to test their conviction on a stronger yen. According to Sina Finance, data released Friday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed that leveraged traders cut bearish bets on the yen by half in the week ended September 8. The move came shortly before Bessent made the remarks at an event, where he told traders he welcomed bets against him and said he had some information about the Bank of Japan and yen policy, calling himself the "house." The yen rose 1.7% this week, extending its recent gains, and the dollar/yen pair was around 153.68 at 4:15 p.m. New York time on Friday. Meanwhile, data showed that speculative foreign-exchange traders, including asset managers and non-commercial traders, cut bullish dollar bets for a sixth straight week in the week ended September 8, with the position falling to $19.4 billion.