Large commodity investment firms, called managed money, are flirting with a net zero live cattle futures position as they whittled off a few more long cattle positions during the week ended Tuesday.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in its monthly Commitments of Traders report Friday, said managed money had a net long live cattle position of only 7,092 contracts, down 6,346, or 47.2%, from 13,438 the previous Tuesday. It was the 12th straight week of declines in their net long live cattle position.
During the same week, commercial traders, those individuals who own the cattle at some point in their lives and are hedgers primarily, had a net short position on Tuesday of 104,671 contracts, down 3,704, or 3.42%, from 108,375 a week earlier. It also was their 12th week of declining positions.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new live cattle position by liquidating 3,366 long positions, adding 2,980 short positions and unwinding 4,402 spread positions. This left them representing 21.1% of total long open interest, 19.1% of total short open interest and 11.7% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 1,454 new long positions and covering 2,250 short positions to leave them in control of 13.1% of total long open interest and 42.3% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday was 357,996 contracts. This was down 2,783, or 0.77%, from 360,779 the previous week.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Aug live cattle futures contract dropped during the CFTC reporting week to close at $100.40 from $104.47 the previous Tuesday, a dip of $4.07, or 3.90%.
FUNDS’ CORN POSITION RANGEBOUND
The Commitments of Traders report showed that managed money’s net long Chicago corn position was rangebound between 237,643 and 108,839 contracts. Friday’s report had them net long by 184,773 contracts, down 21,374, or 10.4%, from 206,147 a week earlier.
Meanwhile, commercials trimmed their net short position by 14,974, or 2.54%, to 574,701 contracts from 589,675 a week earlier.
CFTC data showed that managed money arrived at its new position by liquidating 9,063 long positions, adding 12,311 short positions and placing 21,530 spread positions. This left them representing 18.0% of total long open interest, 7.9% of total short open interest and 11.1% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 13,892 long positions and covering 1,082 short positions, leaving them in control of 21.4% of total long open interest and 52.8% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest as of Tuesday was 1.824 million contracts, up from 1.793 million a week earlier. This was a gain of 30,604 contracts, or 1.71%.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No cattle sold Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange Video Auction, compared with sales two weeks previous at $122.40 per cwt.
Cash cattle trading started last week at $117 per cwt on a live basis on Tuesday and then dipped to $115 to $116 on Wednesday, down $5 to $7 from the previous week. Thursday, sales were reported at $115 to $116. Dressed-basis trades were reported at $184 to $185 per cwt, down $8.50 to $9.50.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.47 per cwt at $232.21, while select was up $0.22 at $208.46. The choice/select spread narrowed to $23.75 from $24.44 with 77 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $133.86 per cwt, down $1.17. This compares with Friday’s May close of $132.22, down $0.87.