Large commodity investment funds, known as managed money, reversed course during the week ended Tuesday and took on a larger net long live cattle futures position.
At the same time, hedgers, those who own, or will own, the cattle at some point, known as commercial traders, took reversed their trend toward smaller net short live cattle futures positions and got shorter.
The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
FUNDS GET LONGER CATTLE
As of Tuesday, the collective net long positions of managed money totaled 50,128 contracts, up 5,687, or 12.8%, from 44,441 a week earlier.
The new position for commercial traders Tuesday amounted to 146,626 contracts, up 8,811, or 6.40%, from 137,815 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long live cattle position by adding 3,992 long positions, covering 1,695 short positions and unwinding 582 spread positions. This left their position representing 28.1% of total long open interest, 12.4% of total short open interest and 12.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by liquidating 4,348 long positions and adding 4,463 short positions, leaving them in charge of 7.8% of total long open interest and 53.9% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest as of Tuesday was 317,964 contracts, down 1,931, or 0.60%, from 319,895 from a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Aug live cattle futures contract rose during the week ended Tuesday, settling at $122.05 per cwt.
FUNDS LESS LONG CORN
At the same time, managed money took on a smaller collective net long position in Chicago corn futures by Tuesday. Their position totaled 311,523 contracts, down 43,976, or 12.4%, from 355,499 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Dec. 29 when it was 309,163 contracts.
Commercials Tuesday had a total let short position of 723,411 contracts, down 36,947, or 4.86%, from 760,358 a week earlier. It was their smallest short position since Dec. 22 when it was 665,313 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by liquidating 40,196 long positions, adding 3,780 short positions and putting on 2,254 spread positions. This left them with 19.8% of total long open interest, 1.7% of total short open interest and 8.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 61,489 long positions and 24,542 short positions, leaving them in control of 27.3% of total long open interest and 69.4% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest was 1.717 million contracts, up from 1.760 million a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle traded last week at $118 to $122 per cwt on a live basis, up $1 to $3 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trading was at $189 to $192.50, up $1 to $2.50.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $0.16 per cwt at $316.94, while select was down $2.72 at $293.19. The choice/select spread widened to $23.75 from $20.87 with 76 loads of fabricated product and 31 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported Friday that basis bids for corn from livestock feeding operations in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.05 to $1.19 a bushel over the May CBOT futures contract, which settled at $6.43 3/4 a bushel, down $0.31.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Wednesday was $131.73 per cwt up $0.72. This compares with Friday’s May contract settlement of $137.55 per cwt, up $0.10.