U.S. dollar net longs little changed vs week ago-CFTC, Reuters data

(Adds details, table, comment, byline)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

April 28 (Reuters) - Net (LSE: 0LN0.L - news) long positions on the U.S. dollar

were near flat from a week earlier, according to calculations by

Reuters and Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released

on Friday.

The value of the dollar's net long position totaled $15.29

billion in the week ended April 25, down slightly from $15.34

billion the previous week.

The dollar failed to gain traction over the last few days,

as U.S. President Donald Trump's tax reform plan underwhelmed

investors and raised doubts about how it could get done. Over

the last two weeks, the dollar index has dropped 1.5

percent and has underperformed for most of the year to date.

The greenback is expected to be in focus next week ahead of

a slew of events and economic data, including the Federal

Reserve Open Monetary Policy meeting and Friday's U.S. nonfarm

payrolls report.

As investors head into a busy week, analysts say the dollar

remains vulnerable.

"Despite Friday's rally, U.S. data has been terrible," said

Kathy Lien, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset

Management in New York.

"There's currently a major misalignment between the

performance of the U.S. economy and the market's expectations

for Fed tightening."

Net shorts on the Canadian dollar this week ballooned to

42,642 contracts, the largest since early February 2016 as the

United States works to renegotiate the terms of its NAFTA deal

with Canada and Mexico.

Meanwhile, long positioning on the Mexican peso swelled to

16,038 contracts, the largest since mid-September 2014.

Net short euro contracts, on the other hand, fell to 20,895

this week. Last week, euro net shorts rose to their highest

since mid-March.

Euro short positioning has eased after independent centrist

Emmanuel Macron came out ahead of Marine Le Pen (Other OTC: PENC - news) , head of the

anti-European Union and anti-immigrant National Front, in the

first round of the French election last weekend.

"Without the post-election breakout last Sunday, the euro

would not have been this week's best performing currency and

politics should continue to provide the single currency with

support going into the final round of the French election," said

BK's Lien.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen)

$3.024 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 48,538 45,761

Short 75,407 76,224

Net -26,869 -30,463

EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros)

$2.853 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 157,831 185,786

Short 178,726 207,435

Net -20,895 -21,649

POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling)

$7.317 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 54,050 48,348

Short 145,232 147,838

Net -91,182 -99,490

SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs)

$2.179 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 7,654 10,830

Short 24,971 24,632

Net -17,317 -13,802

CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars)

$3.143 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 52,545 37,306

Short 95,187 70,558

Net -42,642 -33,252

AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars)

$-3.218 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 64,684 70,392

Short 21,982 27,130

Net 42,702 43,262

MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos)

$-0.425 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 91,689 97,027

Short 75,651 82,783

Net 16,038 14,244

NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars)

$1.07 billion

April 25, 2017 Prior week

week

Long 18,693 18,320

Short 34,097 33,326

Net -15,404 -15,006

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; editing by Diane Craft

and Jonathan Oatis)