Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, again sold down their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday.
At the same time, commercial traders, or hedgers, covered a significant portion of their net short position. All of this was based on the weekly Commitments of Traders report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Friday.
FUNDS SELL CATTLE
As of Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 45,992 contracts, down 12,220, or 21.0%, from 58,212 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Nov. 9 when it was 43,698 contracts.
At the same time, commercial traders Tuesday had a collective net short cattle position of 125,105 contracts, down 15,624, or 11.1%, from 140,729 a week earlier. This was their smallest net short position since Nov. 2 when it was 120,923 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new long cattle position by adding 317 long positions, 12,537 short positions and 508 spread positions. This left them holding 25.2% of total long open interest, 11.5% of total short open interest and 13.1% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were Tuesday by adding 6,060 long positions and covering 9,564 short positions, leaving them with 12.8% of total long open interest and 50.1% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said live cattle open interest Tuesday totaled 335,630 contracts, up 6,978, or 2.12%, from 328,652 a week earlier.
CME Group data also showed that the most-active Apr live cattle contract declined during the CFTC reporting week to settle Tuesday at $140.10 per cwt, compared with $141.85 a week earlier. In between, it set a swing high of $143.35 per cwt on Wednesday.
MANAGED MONEY BULLISH CORN
While managed money sold cattle, they bought corn futures, the CFTC data showed. Tuesday their collective net long corn position totaled 360,124 contracts, up 41,180, or 12.9%, from 318,944 a week earlier. It was their largest long position since Dec. 28 when it was 362,531 contracts.
Commercials on Tuesday had a total net short corn position of 692,347 contracts, up 47,653, or 7.39%, from 644,694 a week earlier. It was their largest short position since May 11, 2021, when it was 723,411 contracts.
Managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 39,017 long positions, covering 2,163 short positions and putting on 1,121 spread positions, leaving them with 25.4% of total long open interest, 2.0% of total short open interest and 7.7% of total spread open interest.
Commercials liquidated 11,205 long positions and added 36,448 short positions. They had 22.3% of total long open interest and 67.3% 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 $136.74 to $139.41 per cwt, compared with the previous week’s range of $137.18 to $141.00. FOB dressed steers and heifers went for $213.43 to $218.04 per cwt, versus $212.87 to $216.93.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was up $1.31 per cwt at $290.42, while select was up $4.31 at $283.41. The choice/select spread narrowed to $7.01 from $10.01 with 62 loads of fabricated product and 15 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported that basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were steady at $1.40 to $1.65 a bushel over the Mar futures and for southwest Kansas were down $0.05 at $0.30 over Mar, which settled at $6.36 a bushel, up $0.10 3/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $158.66 per cwt down $0.39. This compares with Friday’s Mar contract settlement of $159.62 per cwt, down $0.12.