Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, continued selling live cattle futures during the week ended Tuesday as cattle owners continues covering short positions.
The information was derived from the weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday published by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FUNDS SELL CATTLE
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 13,410 contracts, down 901, or 6.30%, from 14,311 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since July 12, 2022, when it totaled 12,232 contracts.
At the same time, cattle owners, called commercial traders, had a total net short position of 70,939 contracts, down 2,815, or 3.82%, from 73,754 a week earlier. It was their smallest position in more than two years.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new cattle position by adding 48 long positions, 949 short positions and 1,379 spread positions. This left them in charge of 16.6% of total long open interest, 11.7% of total short open interest and 16.8% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders got to where they were Tuesday by adding 1,755 long positions and covering 1,060 short positions, leaving them with 21.0% of total long open interest and 47.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said live cattle open interest Tuesday totaled 269,187 contracts, down 4,131, or 1.51%, from 273,318 a week earlier.
CME data also said the most-active Apr contract rose in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle Tuesday at $175.17 per cwt, compared with $173.50 a week earlier.
FUNDS ALSO SELL CORN
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net short corn position of 271,650 contracts, up 34,441, or 14.5%, from 237,209 a year earlier. It was their largest net short position in more than two years.
Commercials had a total net long position of 15,543 contracts, up from a net short position of 13,063 just a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by liquidating 3,679 long positions, adding 30,762 short positions and putting on 12,283 new spread positions. This left them holding 10.1% of total long open interest, 28.1% of total short open interest and 15.1% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 39,094 long positions and 10,488 short positions, leaving them with 30.2% of total long open interest and 29.2% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.486 million contracts, up 92,000, or 6.60%, from 1.394 million a week earlier.
CME data also said the most-active Mar contract declined in value during the CFTC-reporting week to settle at $4.43 ½ a bushel versus $4.59 ¼ a week earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $172.05 per cwt to $175.34, compared with the previous week’s range of $173.00 to $176.63 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $270.93 per cwt to $275.55, compared with $270.02 to $279.69.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.79 per cwt at $295.50 while select was down $0.71 at $283.05. The choice/select spread narrowed to $12.45 from $12.53 with 88 loads of fabricated product and 24 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 $1.25 to $1.35 a bushel over the Mar corn contract, which settled at $4.45 1/2 a bushel, up $0.01 1/2.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $227.26 per cwt, down $0.03. This compares with Friday’s Jan contract settlement of $230.10, down $0.82.