U.S. dollar net longs hit 10-month high; specs turn short yen -CFTC, Reuters

(Adds table, details on dollar, yen contracts, analyst comments, byline) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss Dec 2 (Reuters) - Speculators boosted positive bets on the U.S. dollar for a second straight week, with net longs rising to their highest since mid-January.

The value of the dollar's net long position rose to $24.82 billion in the week ended Nov. 29 from $22.25 billion the previous week, according to Reuters calculations and data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released on Friday.

Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, which showed job gains of 178,000 last month, underwhelmed investors because of downward revisions to the previous two months and a drop in average hourly earnings.

That should not, however, deter the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates this month, but the tightening pace could slow after that, said Kathy Lien, managing director or FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York.

The dollar's gains could ease going into next year as a result.

"The U.S. dollar has had a great run but after Friday's data the uptrend is exhausting with the market fully discounting a 25-basis-point rate hike," Lien said. "As the rate decision nears, we could see more two-way action in the currency." For the year, the dollar index still shows a gain of 2 percent.

Speculators, meanwhile, turned net short on the Japanese yen for the first time since last December to 269 short contracts, from net long contracts of 10,900 the previous week.

The yen has struggled in the wake of the dollar's recent surge. It did get a reprieve on Friday with the dollar pulling back a little bit, but the outlook, both fundamental and technical, remained skewed in the greenback's favor.

"The safe-haven Japanese yen has remained in severe pullback mode as equity markets have continued to maintain the 'Trump Rally' and OPEC-driven risk in the energy markets has instantly dissipated," said James Chen, head of research at Forex.com in Bedminster, New Jersey.

OPEC on Thursday agreed to cut daily crude oil production by more than a million barrels to 32.5 million barrels. Oil prices immediately rose on the OPEC news, spurring a risk rally across the board.

Chen added that if dollar/yen is able to maintain above 114.00 yen, strong upside momentum for the dollar and a lagging yen could push the pair towards its next major resistance targets at 116.00 and 118.00.

The Reuters calculation for the aggregate U.S. dollar position is derived from net positions of International Monetary Market speculators in the yen, euro, sterling, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.

Japanese Yen (Contracts of 12,500,000 yen) $-1.226 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 72,124 71,183 Short 72,393 60,283 Net -269 10,900 EURO (Contracts of 125,000 euros) $15.849 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 136,108 127,122 Short 255,348 246,470 Net -119,240 -119,348 POUND STERLING (Contracts of 62,500 pounds sterling) $5.77 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 50,806 54,209 Short 128,941 128,527 Net -78,135 -74,318 SWISS FRANC (Contracts of 125,000 Swiss francs) $2.832 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 13,027 9,515 Short 37,361 32,415 Net -24,334 -22,900 CANADIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Canadian dollars) $1.299 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 25,010 28,260 Short 43,586 45,722 Net -18,576 -17,462 AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 Aussie dollars) $-2.272 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 54,791 63,488 Short 33,834 32,783 Net 20,957 30,705 MEXICAN PESO (Contracts of 500,000 pesos) $1.174 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 19,314 19,884 Short 73,814 68,198 Net -54,500 -48,314 NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR (Contracts of 100,000 New Zealand dollars) $0.038 billion 29 Nov 2016 Prior week week Long 30,231 31,779 Short 32,103 32,312 Net -1,872 -533 (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Diane Craft and James Dalgleish)