Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, divested themselves of some of their historically large collective net long live cattle position in the week ended Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
At the same time, the CFTC said cash traders, commonly referred to as commercial traders, trimmed their own total net short live cattle position.
FUNDS SELL CATTLE POSITIONS
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 152,303 contracts, down 4,533, or 2.89%, from 156,836 a week earlier.
Also on Tuesday, commercial traders had a total net short live cattle position of 146,472 contracts, down 2,479, or 1.66%, from 148,951 a week earlier.
Broken down, managed money’s new position had 168,760 long positions, a decline of 3,306, and representing 43.7% of total open interest; they had 16,457 short positions, an increase of 1,227, and representing 4.3% of the total, and they had 38,782 spread positions, an increase of 765, and representing 10.0% of total open interest.
Commercial traders had 46,192 long positions, an increase of 485 contracts, and representing 12.0% of the total, with 192,664 short positions, a decline of 1,994, and representing 49.9% of the total.
The CFTC said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 386,168 contracts, down 4,675, or 1.20%, from 390,843 a week earlier.
The most-active Apr contract declined in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle at $198.65 per cwt, compared with $207.27 a week earlier.
FUNDS BUY MORE CORN
Tuesday, managed money had a total net long Chicago corn position of 361,531 contracts, up 17,742, or 5.16%, from 343,789 a week earlier.
Commercials, Tuesday, had a total net short corn position of 708,178 contracts, up 22,390, or 3.26%, from 685,788 a week earlier.
Managed money’s new position had 444,920 long positions, a gain of 6,277 from a week earlier. It represented 22.0% of total open interest. They had 83,389 short positions, 4.1% of total open interest, a decline of 11,465 contracts. They had 379,991 spread positions, or 18.8% of total open interest, a gain of 22,662.
Commercials’ total position Tuesday had 373,512 long positions, or 18.5% of total open interest a decline of 15,486 contracts from a week earlier. They also had 1.082 million short positions, representing 53.6% of total open interest, a gain of 6,904.
The CFTC said total corn open interest Tuesday was 2.019 million contracts, up 39,000, or 1.97%, from 1.980 million a week earlier.
The most-active Mar contract rose in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle at $4.94 ½ a bushel, compared with $4.85 ¼ a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $204.48 per cwt to $210.94, compared with the previous week’s range of $201.74 to $211.62 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $320.86 per cwt to $336.40, compared with $316.06 to $327.24.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $2.11 per cwt at $321.87 while select was off $1.87 at $312.90. The choice/select spread narrowed to $8.97 from $9.21 with 97 loads of fabricated product and 58 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA-listed weighted average wholesale price for fresh 90% lean beef was $368.47 per cwt, and 50% beef was $92.57.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.21 to $1.31 a bushel over the Mar corn contract, which settled at $4.87 1/2, down $0.07 3/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $275.59 per cwt, down $2.05. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $264.90, down $0.40.