Large commodity investment funds, known as managed money, nudged their collective net long live cattle futures position higher during the week ended Tuesday as hedgers continued to extend their net short position.
Those conclusions came from data published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
In the report, the CFTC said managed money’s new net long live cattle position stood at 15,681 contracts, up 1,305, or 9.08%, from 14,376 the week before. This pushed them to their largest net long position since Feb. 18 when it was 30,312 contracts.
At the same time, those who own the cattle and often come to the market as hedgers, known as commercial traders, extended their net short position to 112,577 contracts, up 5,494, or 5.13%, from 107,083 the week before. This took them to their largest net short position since Feb. 24 when it was 113,443 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by adding 2,893 long positions, 1,588 short positions and 82 spread positions. This left their collective position representing 16.2% of total open interest, 10.4% of total short open interest and 12.2% of total spread open interest.
Commercials reached their new net short position by liquidating 411 long positions and adding 5,083 short positions, leaving them in charge of 11.3% of total long open interest and 53.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said live cattle open interest on Tuesday stood at 268,303 contracts, up 8,083, or 3.11%, from 260,220 a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Aug futures contract declined on the week after setting a near-tern swing high on Thursday at $101.30 per cwt. The contract settled Tuesday at $96.20 per cwt, down from $99.25 a week earlier.
FUNDS EXTEND SHORT CORN POSITION
Meanwhile, managed money extended their collective net short Chicago corn futures position in the week ended Tuesday, with a position totaling 286,207 contracts, up 9,169, or 3.31%, from 277,038 the previous week. This took them to their largest net short position in more than a year.
Commercial traders, though, trimmed their collective net long corn position to 16,051 contracts from 21,807 the week before, a decline of 5,756, or 26.4%.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new corn position by adding 6,077 long positions, 15,246 short positions and 4,762 spread positions. This left them holding 8.0% of total long open interest, 26.8% of total short open interest and 11.6% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 5,393 long positions and 11,149 short positions, leaving them with 35.8% of total long open interest and 34.8% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday stood at 1.519 million contracts, up from 1.466 million the previous Tuesday, a gain of 53,245, or 3.63%.
The Jul contract rose on the week to $3.24 ¼ a bushel from $3.19.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle trading was reported last week at $109 to $118 per cwt on a live basis, down $2 to $3 from the previous week’s range. Dressed-basis trading was seen at $176 to $187 per cwt, down $2 to $3.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $10.78 per cwt at $261.48, while select was off $13.99 at $246.42. The choice/select spread widened to $15.06 from $11.85 with 126 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday was $127.93 per cwt, down $0.72. This compares with Friday’s Aug contract settlement of $134.17, down $0.55.