After trimming their collective net long live cattle futures positions for a week, large commodity investment funds resumed their four-month-long buying trend during the week ended Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday.
The CFTC revealed the net long position of those funds, called managed money in the trade, in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
Managed money’s new net long live cattle position Tuesday was 144,452 contracts, up 15,479, or 12.0%, from 128,973 the previous week, which was their first decline in their net long position in 17 weeks. Their new net long position is the largest in more than a year.
At the same time, commercial traders, those who own the cattle and primarily are hedgers, extended their net short live cattle position to 210,207 contracts, up 8,405, or 4.16%, from 201,802 the previous Tuesday. It was their 18th straight increase in their net short position and extended it out to the largest in more than a year.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new net long live cattle position by adding 12,242 long positions, covering 3,237 short positions and unwinding 1,435 spread positions. This left their position representing 36.1% of total long open interest, 3.6% of total short open interest and 13.6% of total spread open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest on Tuesday was 444,471 contracts, up 12,775, or 2.96%, from 431,696 the previous week.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Jun live cattle contract rose during the CFTC reporting week to settle at $122.72 per cwt from $118.67. The contract has since continued to climb, setting a new contract high of $124.90 on Friday before closing at $123.50.
FUNDS TRIM NET SHORT CORN POSITION
During the week, managed money trimmed their collective net short corn futures position to 282,845 contracts, from 282,981 the previous Tuesday, a decline of only 136 contracts, or 0.05%.
At the same time commercial traders pared their own net short corn position by 1,501 contracts, or 1.94%, to 75,800 contracts from 77,301 a week before.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new short corn position by liquidating 3,749 long positions, covering 3,885 short positions and putting on 32,491 new spread positions.
Commercials arrived at their new corn position by adding 16,067 long positions and 14,566 short positions, leaving their position in control of 28.5% of total long open interest and 32.7% of total spread open interest.
The CME group said total corn open interest on Tuesday amounted to 1.810 million contracts, up 49,746, or 2.83%, from 1.761 million the previous Tuesday.
CME data also showed that the most-active May corn futures contract had a net gain during the CFTC reporting week, settling Tuesday at $3.71 ¼ a bushel from $3.65 ¾, setting a short-term high of $3.75 ½ on Monday.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle trade was reported last week at $128, up to $130, per cwt on a live basis, up $2 from the bulk of the previous week’s action, and at $205 to $208 on a dressed basis, up $2 to $4 from most of the previous week’s trade.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.22 per cwt at $229.09, while select was up $0.27 at $218.64. The choice/select spread narrowed to $10.45 from $10.94 with 51 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $141.02 per cwt, up $1.90. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $143.00, up $0.22, and the Apr contract settlement of $148.80, down $0.12.