For the third straight week, large commodity investment firms, called managed money, liquidated a portion of their collective net long live cattle futures position as hedgers covered part of their total net short position.
The data came from Friday’s weekly Commitments of Traders report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FUNDS NOT AS LONG CATTLE
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 127,603 contracts, down 8,766, or 6.43%, from 136,369 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Dec. 3 when it was 123,878 contracts.
At the same time, hedgers, commonly called commercial traders since they deal mostly with cash markets, had a total net short position of 138,946 contracts, down 3,499, or 2.46%, from 142,445 a week earlier. It was their smallest net short position since Dec. 3 when it was 137,408 contracts.
Managed money’s live cattle position held 143,798 long positions, or 39.6% of total open interest, down 8,063 from the week before. Their short position was 16,195 contracts, or 4.5% of total open interest, a gain of 703 contracts. Their spread position was 42,047 contracts, o4 11.6% of total open interest, a gain of 2,671.
Commercials’ total long position was 44,392 contracts, or 12.2% of total open interest, a decline of 1,052 contracts. Their short position numbered 183,338 contracts, or 50.5% of total open interest for a decline of 4,551 contracts.
Total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 362,698 contracts, down 5,105, or 1.39%, from 367,803 a week earlier.
The most-active Apr contract declined in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle at $194.02 per cwt, versus $196.00 a week earlier.
FUNDS REBUY CORN
After selling corn futures for a week, managed money came back to buy some of their previous position, finishing Tuesday with 359,733 contracts, up 33,489, or 10.3%, from 326,244 a week earlier.
Commercials’ net short position totaled 713,311 contracts, up 35,954, or 5.31%, from 677,357 a week earlier.
Managed money’s long corn position Tuesday totaled 438,583 contracts, or 21.2% of total open interest, a gain of 28,280 contracts. Their total short position was 78,850 contracts, or 3.8% of total open interest, a decline of 5,209 contracts. And their total spread position was 394,791 contracts, or 19.1% of total open interest a decline of 16,320.
Corn open interest Tuesday totaled 2.072 million contracts, up 44,882, or 2.22%, from 2.026 million a week earlier.
CME Group data said the most-active May contract rose during the CFTC-reporting week to settle Tuesday at $5.15 ¾ a bushel, up from $4.98 a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $202.97 per cwt to $210.18, compared with the previous week’s range of $206.00 to $210.58 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $318.80 per cwt to $327.62, compared with $323.19 to $327.97.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $1.86 per cwt at $310.77 while select was off $0.62 at $302.56. The choice/select spread narrowed to $8.21 from $9.45 with 106 loads of fabricated product and 68 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA-listed the weighted average wholesale price for fresh 90% lean beef was $379.01 per cwt, and 50% beef was $91.84.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.20 to $1.33 a bushel over the Mar corn contract, which settled at $4.91 1/4, down $0.06 3/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $278.84 per cwt, up $0.02. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $267.95, up $1.12.