As of Tuesday, large commodity index funds, known as managed money, had cut their collective net long live cattle futures position for the second week, as cattle owners trimmed their total net short position.
The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
FUNDS SELL CATTLE
Friday’s report revealed that managed money Tuesday had a cumulative net long cattle position of 75,165 contracts, down 9,456, or 22.2%, from 84,621 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Dec. 20 when it was 67,127 contracts.
Meanwhile, cattle owners, known as commercial traders, Tuesday had a total net short cattle position of 106,006 contracts, down 6,150, or 5.48%, from 112,156 a week earlier. It was their smallest net short position since Dec. 20 when it was 104,148 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new net long cattle position by liquidating 8,691 long positions, adding 765 short positions and putting on 5,941 spread positions. This left them holding 32.1% of total long open interest, 8.4% of total short open interest and 17.2% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were Tuesday by adding 4,605 long positions and covering 1,545 short positions, leaving them with 13.6% of total long open interest and 47.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 316,580 contracts, up 778, or 0.25%, from 315,802 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Apr contract rose in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle Tuesday at $161.30 per cwt, compared with $160.10 a week earlier. In between, it set a cycle low of $158.55 on Thursday.
FUNDS BUY CORN
As of Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long corn position of 203,506 contracts, up 4,641, or 2.33%, from 198,865 a week earlier.
Commercials, Tuesday, had a total net short corn position of 418,505 contracts, down 9,360, or 2.19%, from 427,865 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 8,967 long positions, 4,326 short positions and 7,782 spread positions. This left them in charge of 21.1% of total long open interest, 5.2% of total short open interest and 9.1% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 621 long positions and covering 8,739 short positions, leaving them holding 24.1% of total long open interest and 57.0% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.274 million contracts, up from 1.251 million a week earlier.
The most-active Mar contract settled Tuesday at $6.77 a bushel, versus $6.81 ¼.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $154.80 to $160.00 per cwt, compared with the previous week’s range of $156.00 to $158.90. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $244.52 to $249.16 per cwt, versus $245.49 to $251.62.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.99 per cwt at $267.76 while select was off $0.94 at $250.54. The choice/select spread narrowed to $17.22 from $17.27 with 89 loads of fabricated product and 21 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.70 to $1.90 a bushel over the Mar corn contract. Bids in Kansas were steady at $0.85 over Mar, which settled at $6.83 a bushel, up $0.00 1/2.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $179.57 per cwt, up $0.77. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $183.47 per cwt, up $0.62.