Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, cut their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday, June 29, as hedgers trimmed their shared net short position.
The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
FUNDS CUT LONG CATTLE POSITION
Managed money’s new net long live cattle position as of last Tuesday stood at 61,794 contracts, down 3,029, or 4.67%, from 64,823 a week earlier.
At the same time, hedgers, known as commercial traders because they own, or will own, the cattle at some point, had a total net short position Tuesday of 150,493 contracts, down 889, or 0.59%, from 151,382 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by liquidating 3,872 long positions, covering 843 short positions and putting on 940 long positions. This left them in charge of 28.5% of total long open interest, 7.8% of total short open interest and 10.8% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by liquidating eight long positions and covering 897 short positions, leaving them with 7.2% of total long open interest and 57.7% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 298,250 contracts, down 1,489, or 0.50%, from 299,739 a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Aug contract declined in value during the CFTC week to settle at $121.92 per cwt, compared with $123.17 a week earlier.
FUNDS SELL MORE CORN
As of Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long Chicago corn position of 238,478 contracts, down 4,333, or 1.78%, from 242,811 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Dec. 15 when it totaled 228,307 contracts.
Also as of Tuesday, commercial traders’ total net short corn position stood at 560,465 contracts, down from 581,041 a week earlier. It was their smallest net short position since Oct. 20 when it was 466,242 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long corn position by liquidating 47 long positions, adding 4,286 short positions and unwinding 18,373 spread positions. This left their holdings at 18.3% of total long open interest, 2.3% of total short open interest and 10.5% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by liquidating 59,720 long positions and covering 80,296 short positions, leaving them in charge of 27.1% of total long open interest and 64.8% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.485 million contracts, down from 1.632 million a week earlier.