Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, broke their 10-week trend of being net sellers of live cattle futures and expanded their net long position during the week ended Tuesday.
At the same time, commercial traders, mostly producers and, thus, hedgers, extended their net short position, breaking a two-week string of short covering.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission made the revelation Friday in its weekly Commitments of Traders report.
Managed money’s new net long position Tuesday was 80,039 contracts, up 7,974, or 11.1%, from 72,065 the previous week when it had reached its lowest point in more than a year.
As of Tuesday, commercial traders had a net short position of 180,271 contracts, up 5,519, or 3.16%, from 174,752 contracts the previous week.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new cattle position by adding 5,901 long positions while covering 2,073 short positions and putting on 1,963 spread positions. This left them representing 27.1% of total long open interest, 4.7% of total short open interest and 10.7% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to their new Tuesday position by liquidating 1,029 long positions and adding 4,490 short positions, leaving them in control of 8.4% of total long open interest and 58.9% of total short open interest.
The CME Group reported total cattle open interest on Tuesday at 357,076 contracts, up 3,382, or 0.96%, from 353,694 the previous week.
During the CFTC reporting week, the most-active Apr futures contract rose to a close of $124.80 per cwt from $120.37 the previous Tuesday. This was a gain of $4.43, or 3.68%.
FUNDS GET LESS SHORT CORN
Meanwhile, managed money reversed course and got less short CBOT corn futures, the CFTC said. Tuesday, these fund investors had a net short position of 217,057 contracts, down 8,006, or 3.56%, from 225,063 the previous week.
Commercial traders added to their net short corn position. Their new position was 163,068 contracts, up 14,296, or 9.61%, from 148,772 contracts the previous Tuesday.
The CFTC reported that managed money arrived at its new position by liquidating 5,360 long positions, covering 13,366 short positions and unwinding 6,256 spread positions. This left them representing 12.5% of total long open interest, 25.5% of total short open interest and 9.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new position by adding 14,339 long positions and 28,635 short positions, leaving them holding 27.4% of total long open interest and 37.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest as of Tuesday was 1.672 million contracts, up 31,327, or 1.91%, from 1.641 million the previous week.
During the latest CFTC week, the most-active Mar contract rose to close at $3.51 ¼ a bushel from $3.48 ¼ the previous week, a gain of $0.03, or 0.86% after bottoming at $3.45 ½ on Jan. 12.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No cattle were sold Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange video auction.
Cash cattle traded early last week at $123 per cwt on a live basis, about steady with the bulk of the previous week’s action, and then at $126 to $127 on Friday, up $3 to $4. On a dressed basis, cattle traded at $200, up about $5.
The USDA’s choice cutout Friday was up $0.06 per cwt at $206.83, while select was up $0.51 at $201.83. The choice/select spread narrowed to $5.00 from $5,45 with only 58 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $147.06 per cwt, down $0.62. This compares with Friday’s Mar’s settlement of $146.72, up $2.80.