Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment funds, bought live cattle futures again during the week ended last Tuesday, June 14, as hedgers sold live cattle futures, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday in its weekly Commitments of Traders report.
MANAGED MONEY GETS LONGER CATTLE
As of last Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 25,756 contracts, up 9,486 contracts, or 58.3%, from 16,270 a week earlier. It was their second straight week of taking on a larger net long position.
Meanwhile, hedgers, often lumped together as commercial traders, because they approach futures from a cash position of owning the cattle, had a total net short position last Tuesday of 99,544 contracts, up 5,070, or 5.37%, from 94,474 a week earlier. It also was their second straight week of taking on a larger net position.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by liquidating 2,608 long positions, covering 12,094 short positions and unwinding 3,190 spread positions. This left they in charge of 27.3% of total long open interest, 17.9% of total short open interest and 8.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were last Tuesday by liquidating 8,952 long positions and covering 3,882 short positions, leaving them with 13.9% of total long open interest and 50.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest last Tuesday was 273,547 contracts, down 21,146, or 7.18%, from 294,693 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Aug contract declined decreased slightly in value over the CFTC reporting week, settling last Tuesday at $134.07 per cwt, compared with $134.12 a week earlier.
FUNDS GET LONGER CORN
Last Tuesday, managed money had a total net long Chicago corn position of 253,240 contracts, up 13,648, or 5.70%, from 239,592 a week earlier. It was their first week with an increase after six weeks of decline.
Commercials Tuesday had a net short corn position of 621,571 contracts, up 3,208, or 0.52%, from 618,363 a week earlier. It was their first increase in three weeks.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 3,646 long positions, covering 10,002 short positions and unwinding 28,563 spread positions. This left them with 20.5% of total long open interest, 3.8% of total short open interest and 8.1% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 3,867 long positions and 7,075 short positions, leaving them holding 24.0% of total long open interest and 64.8% of total short open interest.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $135.00 to $144.00 per cwt, compared with the previous week’s range of $134.15 to $142.43. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $213.01 to $219.19 per cwt, versus $212.70 to $218.64.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.90 per cwt at $266.26, while select was up $1.15 at $246.53. The choice/select spread narrowed to $19.73 from $21.78 with 90 loads of fabricated product and 16 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported that basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.90 to $2.00 a bushel over the Jul futures and for southwest Kansas were steady at even the Jul, which settled at $7.84 1/2 a bushel, down $0.03 3/4.
No live cattle delivery intentions were posted Friday.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $162.17 per cwt up $1.61. This compares with Friday’s Aug contract settlement of $172.95, up $1.65.