Managed money, a moniker for large commodity investment firms, decreased their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday while hedgers cut their total net short position.
The information was contained in the weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FUNDS CUT LONG CATTLE POSITION
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 94,436 contracts, down 9,327, or 8.99%, from the previous week’s 103,763 contracts.
At the same time, hedgers, or commercial traders since they own, or will own, the cattle traded on the CME, had a total net short live cattle position of 126,877 contracts, down 5,948, or 4.48%, from 132,825 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new live cattle position by liquidating 12,189 long positions, covering 2,862 short positions and unwinding 3,684 spread positions. This left them with 34.7% of total long open interest, 4.1% of total short open interest and 13.5% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were by adding 3,071 long positions and covering 2,877 short positions, leaving them holding 11.6% of total long open interest and 52.7% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 317,192 contracts, down 17,054, or 5.10%, from 334,246 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Dec contract declined in value during the CFTC-reporting week. The contract settled Tuesday at $185.65 per cwt, compared with $188.47 a week earlier.
FUNDS REDUCE SHORT CORN POSITION
Managed money Tuesday had a collective net short Chicago corn position of 155,627 contracts, down 11,041, or 6.62%, from 166,668 a week earlier.
Commercial traders, Tuesday, had a total net short corn position of 47,500 contracts, up 14,157, or 42.5%, from 33,343 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 1,095 long positions, covering 9,946 short positions and putting on 5,098 spread positions. This left them in charge of 12.4% of total long open interest, 23.8% of total short open interest and 13.9% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by liquidating 1,687 long positions and adding 12,470 short positions, leaving them with 33.9% of total long open interest and 37.4% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.371 million contracts, up from 1.338 million a week earlier for a gain of 33,278, or 2.49%.
The most-active Dec contract rose in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle Tuesday at $4.87 ½ a bushel, up $0.77 2/2, or 1.62%, from $4.79 ¾ a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $182.69 per cwt to $187.04, compared with the previous week’s range of $182.50 to $187.80 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $286.98 per cwt to $291.70, compared with $287.19 to $292.38.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $4.25 per cwt at $302.01 while select was up $1.01 at $275.78. The choice/select spread widened to $26.23 from $22.99 with 76 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 $1.37 to $1.50 a bushel over the Dec corn contract, which settled at $4.92 a bushel, down $0.05 1/2.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $250.41 per cwt, down $1.04. This compares with Friday’s Oct contract settlement of $248.37, up $0.87.