Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, reversed direction in the week ended Tuesday, increasing their collective net long live cattle futures position to its highest level in nearly six months, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
The CFTC said managed money’s new net long position Tuesday came to 71,138 contracts, compared with the March 20 position of 71,832. The new position was up 17,028, or 31.5%, from 54,110 contracts the previous Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, commercial traders, those who own the cattle and primarily are hedgers, reversed position and extended their collective net short position to its largest in nearly six months. Their new net short position was 143,769 contracts, compared with the March 27 total of 150,778. It also was up 14,763 contracts, or 11.4%, from the previous week’s 129,006.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at the new net long cattle position by adding 8,285 long positions, covering 8,743 shorts and putting on 3,688 new spread positions. This left them representing 28.7% of total long open interest, 6.4% of total short open interest and 12.6% of total spread open interest.
Commercials added 776 long positions and 15,539 short positions, leaving them in control of 10.5% of total long open interest and 55.6% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest grew to 319,569 contracts from 302,193 the previous week, a gain of 17,376, or 5.75%.
The CME Group also said the most-active Dec live cattle contract shot higher during the week to settle Tuesday at $117.97 per cwt, up from $113.92 the week before. The contract has since hit a seven-month high of $118.70, the highest since Feb. 27’s $118.95.
FUNDS TAKE CORN SHORT POSITION TO TWO-MONTH HIGH
During the CFTC reporting week, managed money extended its net short CBOT corn futures position to its largest in two months. The new position for these funds was 158,424 contracts, up 74,532, or 88.8%, from 83,892 the previous Tuesday and the largest since July 24 when it was net short by 164,923 contracts.
At the same time, commercials moved their net short position down 76,428, or 31.7%, to 164,774 contracts from 241,202, their smallest since Jan. 23 when it was short by 163,068 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at its new corn position by liquidating 17,970 long positions and adding 56,562 short positions while putting on 5,043 spreads, leaving them with 14.0% of total long open interest, 23.1% of total short open interest and 10.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials added 34,519 long positions and covered 41,909 shorts, leaving them with 29.7% of total long open interest and 39.3% of total short open interest.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
No fed cattle sold Wednesday on the Livestock Exchange Video Auction, compared with 280 that traded four weeks previous at $109.50 per cwt.
Cash trading was reported last week at $110.50 to $111.50 per cwt on a live basis, down $0.50 to up $0.50 from the bulk of the previous week’s action. Dressed trade was reported at $170 to $175, down $2 to $4 from the bulk of the previous week’s trade.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $0.28 per cwt at $204.80, while select was off $0.20 at $194.71. The choice/select spread widened to $10.09 from $9.61 with 68 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Thursday, was $156.29 per cwt, up $1.83. This compares with Friday’s Sep settlement of $156.95, up $1.27, and the Oct settlement of $158.07, up $0.80.