Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment firms, slashed their collective net long live cattle position in the week ended Tuesday as hedgers cut their total net short position.
The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
MANAGED MONEY SELLS CATTLE
Managed money Tuesday had a collective net long live cattle futures position of 40,085 contracts, down 20,203, or 33.5%, from 60,288 a week earlier. It was their smallest net long position since Aug. 8 when it was 32,069 contracts.
Hedgers, often called commercial traders, since, theoretically, they are in a position to make or take delivery of a futures contract, had a total net short live cattle position Tuesday of 96,179 contracts, down 16,041, or 14.3%, from 112,220 a week earlier. It was their smallest net short position since July 26 when it was 94,601 contracts.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new cattle position by liquidating 15,338 long positions, adding 4,865 short positions and unwinding 1,246 spread positions. This left them holding 27.1% of total long open interest, 12.3% of total short open interest and 13.3% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders arrived at their new short position by adding 3,699 long positions and covering 12,342 short positions, leaving them in control of 13.1% of total long open interest and 48.6% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday was 270,733 contracts, down 14,648, or 5.13%, from 285,381 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Dec contract rose in value during the CFTC week, settling Tuesday at $147.50 per cwt, up 0.41%, from $146.90 a week earlier.
FUNDS BUY CORN
Meanwhile, managed money was buying corn futures. As of Tuesday, the funds held a net long Chicago corn position of 228,821 contracts, up 4,459, or 1.99%, from 224,362 a week earlier.
Commercial traders, Tuesday, had a total net short corn position of 454,945 contracts, up 3,971, or 0.88%, from 450,974 a week earlier.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by liquidating 4,303 long positions, covering 8,762 short positions and putting on 3,557 spread positions. This left them in control of 19.2% of total long open interest, 2.4% of total short open interest and 10.2% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 24,819 long positions and 28,790 short positions, leaving them with 26.6% of total long open interest and 59.9% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.366 million contracts, up from 1.347 million a week earlier.
The most-active Dec contract rose to $6.83 a bushel from $6.67 ½.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $143.00 to $147.00 per cwt, compared with the previous week’ range of $142.00 to $147.86. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $224.47 to $229.38 per cwt, versus $222.00 to $227.67.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $1.29 per cwt at $246.07 while select was off $0.86 at $216.13. The choice/select spread narrowed to $29.94 from $30.17 with 102 loads of fabricated product and 31 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 $1.95 to $2.05 a bushel over the Dec futures and for southwest Kansas were steady at $1.00 over Dec, which settled at $6.83 1/4, up $0.07 3/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $174.92 per cwt down $0.77. This compares with Friday’s Oct contract settlement of $174.72, down $1.00.