Large commodity investment firms, known as managed money, cut their collective net long live cattle futures position for the third straight week during the week ended Tuesday, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The data was contained in the CFTC’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday, which also said hedgers cut their collective net short cattle position for the third straight week.
FUNDS SLASH CATTLE HOLDINGS
Managed money had a net long live cattle position Tuesday of 43,338 contracts, down 21,702, or 33.4%, from 65,040 a week earlier and down from the most recent high of 87,407 contracts on Aug. 24.
Meanwhile, commercial traders, those who own, or will own, the cattle at some point and usually use the futures market for hedging, had a collective net short position Tuesday of 130,449 contracts, down 17,980, or 12.1%, from 148,429 a week earlier and down from the most recent high of 164,905 on Aug. 24.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new cattle position by liquidating 11,948 long positions, adding 9,754 short positions and unwinding 6,609 spread positions. This left them in control of 24.1% of total long open interest, 9.4% of total short open interest and 10.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 5,996 long positions and covering 11,984 short positions, leaving them in control of 10.8% of total long open interest and 55.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday stood at 294,395 contracts, down 4,768, or 1.59%, from 299,163 a week earlier.
The CME Group also said the most-active Dec contract declined during the latest CFTC reporting week to settle Tuesday at $127.15 per cwt, compared with $129.55 a week earlier. In between, it made a low of $125.67 on Monday.
FUNDS CUT LONG CORN POSITION
As of Tuesday, managed money’s net long position for Chicago corn totaled 197,757 contracts, down 4,445, or 0.22%, from 202,202 a week earlier.
Also as of Tuesday, commercials had a total net short corn position of 447,021 contracts, down 10,245, or 2.24%, from 457,266 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their net long cattle position by liquidating 7,636 long positions, covering 3,191 short positions and unwinding 3,704 spread positions. This left them in charge of 18.0% of total long open interest, 3.7% of total short open interest and 9.4% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 9,131 long positions and covering 1,114 short positions, leaving them with 28.8% of total long open interest and 61.2% of total short open interest.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $122.43 to $127.40 per cwt, compared with the previous week’s weekly range of $127.40 to $128.11. FOB dressed steers and heifers went for $192.44 to $203.38 per cwt, versus $202.27 to $203.18.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $3.53 per cwt at $314.47, while select was down $0.52 at $279.75. The choice/select spread narrowed to $34.72 from $37.73 with 124 loads of fabricated product and 30 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 $1.85 to $2.05 a bushel over the Dec futures and for southwest Kansas were unchanged at $0.40 over Dec, which settled at $5.27 1/4 a bushel, down $0.02 1/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $154.60 per cwt up $0.58. This compares with Friday’s Sep contract settlement of $154.87 per cwt, down $1.00.