Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, trimmed their net long live cattle futures position as producers whittled away at their net short position for the 10th straight week.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday that for the week ended Tuesday, managed money’s net long live cattle position was 78,492 contracts, down 554, or 0.70%, from 79,046 the previous week and down 50,432, or 39.1%, from the latest high of 128,924 for the week ended June 13.
Producers, feeders and others who own the cattle, called commercials, had a net short position of 170,614 contracts as of Tuesday, down 1,589, or 0.92%, from 172,203 the previous week and down 41,418, or 19.5%, from the recent high of 212,032 the week ended June 13.
Swap dealers, those who facilitate cash or over-the-counter transactions, held their net long position relatively steady at 96,156 contracts, compared with 95,754 the previous week.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new cattle position by liquidating 1,033 long positions, covering 479 shorts and putting on 2,237 spread positions. This left them representing 30.3% of total long open interest, 5.2% of total short open interest and 7.0% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new net short cattle position by adding 1,216 long positions and covering 373 shorts, leaving them in control of 8.0% of total long open interest and 62.4% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest rose during the CFTC week to 313,817 contracts from 311,106. This was a gain of 2,711, or 0.87%.
The most-active Oct contract declined in value during the week to $107.72 per cwt from $109.05 the previous Tuesday. However, in between it set a swing high of $109.70 on Wednesday and a swing low of $104.75 on Friday. The contract moved sideways from Wednesday through Friday.
FUNDS GO SHORT CORN
Managed money continued to cut its CBOT corn position and crossed the line in the CFTC week to take a net short position. The new position is short 26,023 contracts, down 54,908 from being long 28,885 the previous week.
Commercial traders had a new net short position of 276,019 contracts, down 26,655, or 8.81%, from 302,674 the previous week.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new corn position by liquidating 4,775 long positions, adding 50,133 shorts and unwinding 6,243 spread positions. This left them representing 15.8% of total long open interest, 17.6% of total short open interest and 6.3% of spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new position by adding 19,977 long positions and covering 6,678 short positions. This left them holding 26.8% of total long open interest and 45.8% of total short open interest.
Total open interest rose to 1.450 million contracts from 1.409 million the previous week, a gain of 40,612, or 2.88%.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
There were no sales Wednesday on the livestock exchange video auction for the second straight week.
Cash cattle trading in the Central Plains last week was reported at $107 per cwt on a live basis, down $3 from the bulk of the previous week’s action. Dressed-basis markets traded at $172 to $173, compared with $175 to $177.
The USDA’s choice cutout Friday was down $0.43 per cwt at $191.32, while select was off $0.36 at $188.30. The choice/select spread narrowed to $3.02 from $3.09 with 90 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday was $143.24 per cwt, down $0.18. This compares with Friday’s Aug settlement at $141.37, down $0.22.