Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment funds, reduced its cumulative net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday to 51,177 contracts from 59,929, said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The CFTC revealed the statistics in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The decline amounted to 8,752 contracts, or 14.6%. It was their lowest net long position since Sep. 11 when it was long by 54,110 contracts.
During the latest CFTC reporting week, commercial traders, those who own the cattle and primarily are hedgers, trimmed their collective net short position by 3,787 contracts, or 2.65%, to 139,342 contracts from 143,129. It was their smallest net short position since Sep. 11 when it was short by 129,006 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new net long cattle position by liquidating 7,695 long positions, adding 1,057 short positions and putting on 2,576 new spread positions. This left their position representing 24.2% of total long open interest, 9.1% of total short open interest and 15.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by liquidating 611 long positions and covering 4,398 short positions, leaving them in charge of 10.5% of total long open interest and 51.7% of total short open interest.
CME Group data shows that total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday stood at 338,150 contracts, down 15,285, or 4.32%, from 353,435 the previous Tuesday.
The CME Group also said the most-active Feb live cattle futures contract fell during the CFTC week to settle Tuesday at $118.75 per cwt. This was down $1.65, or 1.37%, from $120.40 the previous Tuesday. However, the contract also made a cycle low on Tuesday of $116.67 per cwt and has since moved higher.
FUNDS’ CORN POSITION NEAR FLAT
Meanwhile, managed money kept its net long Chicago corn position near flat, holding a net long position on Tuesday of only 15,833 contracts, up from 14,562 the week before. This was a gain of 1,271 contracts, or 8.73%.
Commercials reduced their net short corn position during the week to 275,154 contracts from 294,493, a dip of 19,339, or 6.57%. It was their smallest net short position since Oct. 9 when it was 240,974 contracts.
Managed money arrived at its new corn position by adding 2,515 long positions and 1,244 short positions while putting on 12,500 new spread positions. This left them in control of 13.6% of total long open interest, 12.7% of total short open interest and 13.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new position by adding 36,569 long positions and 17,230 short positions, leaving them holding 28.6% of total long open interest and 44.2% of total short open interest.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle traded Wednesday at $110 to $112 per cwt on a live basis, down $3 to $5 from last week, while dressed-basis trading was reported at $175 to $176 per cwt, down $3 to $4.
Cash cattle traded Friday at mostly $114 per cwt on a live basis to $114.50, steady to down $0.50 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trades were reported Friday at $178 per cwt, steady to down $2.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.64 per cwt at $212.91, while select was off $0.01 at $197.57. The choice/select spread narrowed to $15.34 from $15.97 with 67 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $147.83 per cwt, down $1.10. This compares with Friday’s Nov settlement of $147.83, down $0.79 and the Jan settlement of $146.52, down $1.32.