Large commodity index funds lost more faith in live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, moving their collective position to being net short from net long, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
The new position for those index funds, known in the trade as managed money, on Tuesday was net short by 1,845 contracts. This compares with the previous week when their position was net long by 11,962 contracts. The latest weekly move also was down from their most recent high net long position of 85,392 contracts as of Jan. 21.
The new position as of Tuesday for hedgers who own the cattle and theoretically could make or take delivery of a futures contract, was net short by 103,220 contracts. This was down 10,223, or 9.01%, from 113,443 the previous Tuesday and down 59,243, or 36.5%, from their most recent high of 162,463 contracts on Jan. 21.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net short cattle position by liquidating 3,619 long positions, adding 10,188 short positions and unwinding 285 spread positions. This left their position representing 16.3% of total long open interest, 16.9% of total short open interest and 17.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercials reached their new position by adding 1,603 long positions and covering 8,620 short positions, leaving them in control of 13.7% of total long open interest and 43.6% of total short open interest.
The CME Group reported that total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 348,955 contracts, up 1,687, or 0.49%, from 347,268 a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Apr live cattle futures contract had a net loss during the week ended Tuesday of $2.85, or 2.52%, going to a close of $110.10 per cwt from $112.95 on Feb. 25.
FUNDS LESS SHORT CORN
During the same CFTC reporting week, managed money took on a less-short Chicago corn futures position, going to a net short position of 77,179 contracts from being short by 88,157. This was a decline of 10,978, or 12.5%.
Commercial traders took on a slightly larger net short corn position by moving to being short by 238,212 contracts from being short by 235,783, a gain of 2,429, or 1.03%.
Managed money arrived at its new net short corn position by liquidating 1,324 long positions, covering 12,302 short positions and putting on 1,538 spread positions. This gave them 13.7% of total long open interest, 18.8% of total short open interest and 16.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new position by liquidating 37,778 long positions and covering 35,349 short positions, leaving them in control of 25.2% of total long open interest and 41.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total open interest on Tuesday stood at 1.501 million contracts, down 83,357, or 5.26%, from 1.585 million a week earlier.
The most-active May contract rose to $3.81 ¼ a bushel from $3.76 ½.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle traded in the Plains last week at $113 per cwt, down $2 to $6 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trade was reported at $180 to $182 per cwt, down $5 to $6.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $0.22 per cwt at $207.47, while select was up $1.51 at $202.57. The choice/select spread narrowed to $4.90 from $6.19 with 65 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday was $133.87 per cwt, up $0.04 from the previous day. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $130.70, down $2.92.