After punching into net-long territory a week earlier, managed money, or large commodity investment funds, extended their position during the week ended Tuesday.
The information came in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
Managed money’s new cumulative net long live cattle position as of Tuesday stood at 7,675 contracts, up 4,962, or 182.9%, from 2,713 the week before. It was their third week of increasing interest in owning live cattle futures, coming from a low of being net short by 10,478 contracts on Sep. 17.
At the same time, the cumulative net short position of commercial traders, or cattle owners who generally are hedgers, was 92,669 contracts as of Tuesday, up 1,467, or 1.61%, from 91,202 the previous Tuesday. It was the fifth straight week in which the net short position of these traders varied by less than 2,000 contracts.
The CFTC report said managed money arrived at its new net long cattle position by adding 3,147 long positions, covering 1,815 short positions and unwinding 5,120 spread positions. This left their cumulative position representing 19.2% of total long open interest, 16.7% of total short open interest and 16.0% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to their new net short position by adding 2,264 long positions and 3,731 short positions, leaving their cumulative position in charge of 16.4% of total long open interest and 46.9% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday stood at 303,863 contracts, down 9,425, or 3.01%, from 313,288 the week before.
CME data also showed that the most-active Dec futures contract rose during the latest CFTC reporting week to settle Tuesday at $110.85 per cwt, compared with $109.82 the previous Tuesday, a gain of $1.03, or 0.94%.
FUNDS GET LESS SHORT CORN
During the same CFTC reporting week, managed money proceeded to take on a less-short cumulative corn position. The new position of these traders was short by 96,859 contracts, down from 128,031 the week before and the third straight week of covering short positions.
Meanwhile, commercial traders moved to a new net short position of 225,869 contracts, up 22,884, or 11.3%, from 202,985 a week earlier for their second straight week of expanding their short position.
Managed money arrived at its new corn position by adding 5,091 long positions, covering 26,081 short positions and putting on 8,043 new spread positions. This left them holding 10.5% of total long open interest, 16.5% of total short open interest and 12.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new corn position by adding 4,291 long positions and 27,175 short positions, leaving them in control of 30.8% of total long open interest and 44.7% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total open interest as of Tuesday was 1.622 million contracts, up from 1.603 million the week before.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle changed hands last week at $108 to $109 per cwt, up $1 to $2 from the previous week, while dressed-basis trading was at $172, up $2.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $0.03 per cwt at $215.66, while select was up $2.02 at $188.68. The choice/select spread narrowed to $26.98 from $28.97 with 61 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
No cattle were posted Friday for delivery against the Oct contract.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday was $143.63 per cwt, down $1.02 from the previous day. This compares with Friday’s Oct contract settlement of $144.10, down $0.20.