Large commodity investment funds, known as managed money, increased their collective net long live cattle position during the week ended Tuesday as hedgers increased their net short positions.
The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. In both cases, the moves reversed the previous week’s declines in collective net long and short positions.
FUNDS GET LONGER CATTLE
Managed money’s new net long live cattle position Tuesday was 50,427 contracts, up 2,987, or 6.30%, from 47,440 a week earlier.
At the same time, those hedgers, called commercial traders since they are the ones who own, or will own, the cattle, had a new net short cattle position Tuesday of 142,601 contracts, up 1,785, or 1.27%, from 140,816 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by adding 1,685 long positions, covering 1,302 short positions and unwinding 3,435 spread positions. This left their position representing 29.1% of total long open interest, 12.3% of total short open interest and 9.3% of total spread open interest.
The CFTC also said commercial traders got to their new live cattle position by liquidating 670 long positions and adding 1,115 short positions, leaving them with 8.6% of total long open interest and 56.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total open interest Tuesday was 299,937 contracts, down 14,977, or 4.76%, from 314,914 a week earlier.
CME Group data showed that the most-active Aug live cattle futures contract rose in value to settle Tuesday at $117.82 per cwt, compared with $116.60 a week earlier. However, the previous Tuesday’s trading action was an aberration in a general downtrend.
FUNDS BACK DOWN ON LONG CORN POSITION
Managed money’s new collective net long corn position Tuesday declined to 277,553 contracts from 290,100 a week earlier, a dip of 12,547 contracts, or 4.33%.
Commercials had a collective net short corn position Tuesday of 640,094 contracts, down from 666,545 a week earlier. It was their smallest net short position since Dec. 15 when it was 647,302 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by liquidating 7,005 long positions, adding 5,542 short positions and unwinding 16,298 spread positions. This left them with 17.8% of total long open interest, 1.8% of total short open interest and 9.1% of total spread open interest.
The CFTC also said commercial traders got to their new corn position by adding 10,853 long positions and covering 15,598 short positions, leaving them with 30.0% of total long open interest and 67.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said corn open interest was 1.728 million contracts versus 1.721 million.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle traded last week was at $119 to $120.50 per cwt on a live basis, down $0.50 to up $0.50 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trading was at $189 to $191, steady to down $1.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.69 per cwt at $337.56, while select was off $5.19 at $305.21. The choice/select spread widened to $32.35 from $27.85 with 55 loads of fabricated product and 22 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported Friday that basis bids for corn from livestock feeding operations in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.00 to $1.07 a bushel over the Jul futures and for southwest Kansas were unchanged at $0.70 over Jul, which settled at $6.84 1/2 a bushel, down $0.14 1/2.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $140.23 per cwt up $0.32. This compares with Friday’s Aug contract settlement of $151.17 per cwt, up $2.77.