Large commodity investment firms, called managed money, cut their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday after reaching their highest point in 5 ½ months just the week before.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday that as of Tuesday, managed money’s net long live cattle position was 59,020 contracts, down 3,039, or 4.90%, from 62,059 just a week before.
At the same time, commercial traders, those who own the cattle and theoretically are able to make or take delivery of a futures contract, trimmed their net short live cattle futures position to 138,012 contracts, down 534, or just 0.39%, from 138,546 the previous Tuesday.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new net long cattle position by liquidating 483 long positions, adding 2,556 short positions and placing 2,556 spread positions. This left them representing 28.0% of total long open interest, 8.3% of total short open interest and 11.5% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders reached their new net short cattle position by liquidating 1,138 long positions and covering 1,672 short positions. This left them in control of 11.1% of total long open interest and 57.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday was 299,624 contracts, up 1,315, or 0.44%, from 298,309 the previous week.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Oct cattle contract declined overall during the latest CFTC week to close Tuesday at $108.45 per cwt from $110.47 the previous Tuesday, a net decline of $2.02, or 1.83%. However, on Monday, it made a 1 1/2-month low of $106.20.
FUNDS SELL CORN
After moving closer to net even on corn last week, managed money sold corn in the week ended Tuesday to build a larger net short position. Managed money’s new corn position was net short by 79,305 contracts, up 29,409, or 58.9%, from 49,896 the week before.
Commercials lowered their net short corn position during the week to 226,449 contracts from 267,838, a cut of 41,389, or 15.5%.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at the new net short corn position by liquidating 74 long positions, adding 29,335 short positions and building 8,271 spread positions. This left them representing 15.0% of total long open interest, 19.7% of total short open interest and 10.5% of total spread open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest declined 41,997 contracts, or 2.45%, during the week to 1.672 million from 1.714 million.
The CME Group also said that the most-active Dec contract fell during the CFTC week to $3.56 ¼ a bushel from $3.74 ¼, a decline of $0.18, or 4.81%. However, after setting a 1 ½-month low of $3.55 ¼ on Wednesday, the contract closed at $3.65 on Friday.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No fed cattle sold Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange Video Auction, compared with 280 that traded the previous Wednesday at $109.50 per cwt.
Cash cattle traded last week at mostly $107 to $108 per cwt on a live basis, down $1.50 to $2 from the previous week, and at $168 to $170 on a dressed basis, down $2 to $4.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $2.04 per cwt at $209.69, while select was off $0.94 at $201.27. The choice/select spread narrowed to $8.42 from $9.52 with 59 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $149.98 per cwt, down $0.11. This compares with Friday’s Sep settlement of $149.45, down $0.72.