Large commodity investment firms, known as managed money, increased their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday, while hedgers boosted their total net short position.
The raw data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
FUNDS BUY LIVE CATTLE
As of Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 89,431 contracts, up 6,201, or 7.45%, from 83,230 a week earlier.
In contrast, hedgers, often called commercial traders since they deal with the actual cattle and approach the futures market primarily from a hedging perspective, had a total net short position Tuesday of 134,760 contracts, up 11,057, or 8.94%, from 123,703 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new cattle position by adding 6,519 long positions, 318 short positions and 1,012 spread positions. This left them in control of 33.6% of total long open interest, 6.9% of total short open interest and 15.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were Tuesday by liquidating 900 long positions and adding 10,157 spread positions, leaving them with 11.0% of total long open interest and 51.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 333,276 contracts, up 23,877, or 7.72%, from 309,399 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Jun contract rose in value during the CFTC reporting week, settling Tuesday at $163.95 per cwt, up from $160.22.
FUNDS ALSO BUY CORN
Managed money also took on a larger net long position in CME corn, ending the CFTC-reporting week with a position of 28,885 contracts, up 4,307, or 17.5%, from 24,578 a week earlier.
Commercials, meanwhile, had a total net short position Tuesday of 265,153 contracts, up 6,077, or 2.24%, from 271,230 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 11,181 long positions, 6,874 short positions and unwinding 12,561 spread positions. This left them in charge of 15.8% of total long open interest, 13.7% of total short open interest and 9.5% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by liquidating 6,133 long positions and covering 23,210 short positions, leaving them with 28.5% of total long open interest and 48.3% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday waws 1.336 million contracts, down 1,478, or 0.11%, from 1.338 million a week earlier.
The CME also said the most-active Jul contract declined in value during the CFTC week, settling Tuesday at $6.27 ¾ per bushel, down from $6.28 a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $172.20 per cwt to $179.46, compared with the previous week’s range of $164.63 to $171.57 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $261.33 per cwt to $273.10, compared with $256.76 to $269.59.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $2.20 per cwt at $302.62 while select was up $0.49 at $283.87. The choice/select spread widened to $18.75 from $17.04 with 66 loads of fabricated product and 14 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.58 to $1.65 a bushel over the May corn contract, which settled at $6.66 1/4 a bushel, up $0.14.
No live cattle futures deliveries were tendered Friday.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $201.31 per cwt, up $1.54. This compares with Friday’s Apr contract settlement of $203.40 per cwt, up $0.72.