RTRS: Dollar flat on profit-taking; yen hits 15-year high
* US dollar shorts largest since at least mid-2008
* G7/IMF meetings fail to reach agreement on currencies
* Dollar hits 15-yr low vs yen but steadies around 82.00 (Updates prices, adds quote, changes byline, changes dateline, previous LONDON)
By Wanfeng Zhou
NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was little changed versus the euro and yen on Monday as traders booked profits on their bets against the greenback after failing to take out key resistance levels.
Sentiment toward the dollar remained broadly bearish, however, as the Federal Reserve looked set to pump more cash into the economy and after a weekend meeting of finance leaders produced no quick fix for tensions in currency markets.
The euro had climbed as high as $1.4012 earlier in the global session, but the move lost momentum after the pair failed to hold above the $1.40 area for a second time since hitting a 8-1/2 month high of $1.4030 last Thursday.
"Clearly 1.40 has been a pretty big resistance level for euro/dollar. The market is looking for any kind of excuse to sell euro/dollar for the time being and maybe bring it back below the $1.39 level," said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT in New York.
"While the fundamentals are still very dollar bearish, the positioning is actually dollar bullish. At this point, the positioning is going to matter more than the fundamentals in terms of driving trade," he added.
In early New York trading, the euro was flat at $1.3939 EUR=, after earlier climbing to $1.4012 on electronic trading platform EBS.
Currency speculators boosted bets against the dollar to $30 billion in the latest week, the largest amount since at least mid-2008. Net long positions on the euro rose to 48,243 contracts, the highest since at least Oct. 2009. [ID:nN08169848] <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Graphic on FX positioning r.reuters.com/kus26k
Graphic on trade-weighted FX moves since 2007
Reuters Insider report, see r.reuters.com/qun86p ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
Traders saw resistance at around $1.4216, a level which acted as support on Dec. 22, when the euro was declining. The next key level is at $1.4372, the 76.4 percent retracement of the euro's fall from November to June.
