UPDATE 1-Specs turn short US dollar, 1st time in nearly a year

NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Currency speculators turned negative on the
U.S. dollar in the latest week for the first time in nearly a year, according to
data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.
The value of the U.S. dollar's short position totaled $441.7 million from a
net long position of position of $4.57 billion the previous week. It's the first
net short position on the dollar since the week of Sept. 6, 2011.
To be short a currency is to bet it will fall in value, while being long is
a view its value will rise.
The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar position is derived
from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen,
euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.
Euro net shorts further declined to 101,561 contracts this week,
while net longs on the yen rose to 21,556 contracts.
Euro sentiment has improved markedly the last few weeks on expectations of
further peripheral bond buying by the European Central Bank in efforts to keep
interest rates in debt-plagued countries lower.
The euro zone's common currency ended the month of August on a positive
note, notching gains of 2.3 percent after losses of 2.8 percent the previous
month.
The U.S. dollar index, on the other hand, closed this month down 1.7
percent following gains of 1.2 percent in July.
Further weighing on the U.S. dollar was an increase in net longs on the
Canadian dollar to 60,936 contracts and a decline in short bets on the
Swiss franc to 11,461 contracts.

JAPAN YEN (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) -3,432,484,076.43
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 53,571 43,584
Short 32,015 32,413
Net 21,556 11,171

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) 15,950,155,050.00
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 45,927 45,986
Short 147,488 169,918
Net -101,561 -123,932

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) -194,536,800.00
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 42,407 45,984
Short 40,439 38,151
Net 1,968 7,833

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) 1,499,188,991.21
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 10,684 5,921
Short 22,145 21,583
Net -11,461 -15,662

CANADA DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) -6,166,363,084.40
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 86,639 76,008
Short 25,703 25,141
Net 60,936 50,867

AUSTRALIA DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) -8,097,627,840.00
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 124,137 127,500
Short 46,065 40,618
Net 78,072 86,882

MEXICO PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) -3,588,668,082.52
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 104,239 107,140
Short 9,613 9,159
Net 94,626 97,981

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 NZ dollars) -1,144,438,470.00
8/28/12 week 8/21/12 week
Long 18,215 19,835
Short 3,986 3,463
Net 14,229 16,372