Large commodity investment firms, called managed money in the trade, extended their collective net long live cattle futures positions in the week ended Tuesday, Aug. 4, for the third straight week.
The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
Managed money’s new long live cattle position last Tuesday was 35,898 contracts, up 4,709, or 15.1%, from 31,189 a week earlier. It was their largest net long position since Feb. 4 when it was 51,369 contracts.
Commercial traders, those who own the cattle and come at the futures market primarily from a hedging point of view, had a net short position last Tuesday of 118,320 contracts, up 11,596, or 10.1%, from 115,196 a week earlier. It was their largest net short position since Feb. 18 when it was short by 130,617 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by adding 3,075 long positions, covering 1,634 short positions and unwinding 2,557 spread positions. This left their net position representing 21.1% of total long open interest, 8.6% of total short open interest and 13.8% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were last Tuesday by adding 1,962 long positions and 5,086 short positions, leaving them holding 11.2% of total long open interest and 52.5% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest last Tuesday was 286,977 contracts, up 7,152, or 2.56%, from 279,825 a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Oct futures contract rose during the CFTC reporting week and settled last Tuesday at $107.47 per cwt, compared with $105.00 a week earlier.
FUNDS SELL CORN
Meanwhile, managed money continued to sell corn futures during the week ended last Tuesday, coming in with a net short position of 194,097 contracts, up 35,815, or 22.6%, from 158,282 a week earlier. It was their largest net short position since June 30 when it was 211,668 contracts.
That same week, commercial traders slashed their net short corn position to 27,582 contracts from 66,548, a decline of 38,963, or 58.5%.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net short corn position by adding 12,113 long positions and 47,928 short positions while unwinding 8,477 spread positions. This left them with 10.8% of total long open interest, 22.7% of total short open interest and 12.2% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to their new position by adding 27,344 long positions and covering 11,622, leaving them with 33.5% of total long open interest and 35.2% of total spread open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest last Tuesday was 1.640 million contracts, up 61,262, or 3.88%, from 1.578 million a week earlier.
The most-active Dec contract settled last Tuesday at $3.20 ¼ a bushel, down from $3.30 a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle trading was reported last week at $99 to $103 per cwt on a live basis, up $2 to $5.50 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trading was done at $163 to $164 per cwt, up $3 to $4.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $1.73 per cwt at $207.20, while select was up $1.18 at $193.93. The choice/select spread widened to $13.27 from $12.72 with 84 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
Six heifer contracts were tendered for delivery Monday against the Aug futures contract,
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Friday was $142.61 per cwt, up $0.69. This compares with Monday’s Aug contract settlement of $143.57, up $0.85.