Large commodity investment firms, known as managed money, trimmed their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday as cattle owners cut their total net short position.
The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.
FUNDS CUT NET LONG POSITION
As of Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle position of 100,581 contracts, down 29,182, or 22.5%, from 129,763 a week earlier. It was their third straight week of declines.
At the same time, cattle owners, referred to as commercial traders since they deal with the actual cattle represented by the futures contract, had a total net short position of 129,763 contracts, down from 131,532 a week earlier. It also was their third straight week of declines.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new cattle position by liquidating 5,779 long positions, adding 255 short positions and unwinding 5,085 spread positions. This left holding 34.5% of total long open interest, 3.2% of total short open interest and 19.8% of total spread open interest.
Commercial traders reached their new cattle position by liquidating 2,448 long positions and covering 4,217 short positions, leaving them in charge of 12.2% of total long open interest and 52.7% of total spread open interest.
The CME Group said total live cattle open interest Tuesday came to 320,046 contracts, down 18,479, or 5.46%, from 338,525 a week earlier.
CME data also showed that the most-active Oct contract rose in value during the CFTC-reporting week, settling Tuesday at $181.82 per cwt, compared with $179.60 a week earlier.
FUNDS SLASH LONG CORN POSITION
Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long Chicago corn position of 12,675 contracts, down 12,379, or 49.4%, from 25,054 a week earlier.
At the same time, commercial traders had a total net short corn position of 211,215 contracts, up from 207,038 a week earlier, a gain of 4,177, or 2.02%.
The CFTC said managed money arrived at their new corn position by adding 8,609 long positions and 20,988 short positions, while unwinding 4,906 spread positions. This left them with 14.3% of total long open interest, 13.4% of total short open interest and 11.7% of total spread open interest.
Commercials got to where they were by adding 6,285 long positions and 10,462 short positions, leaving them with 29.6% of total long open interest and 45.6% of total short open interest.
The CME Group said total corn open interest Tuesday was 1.304 million contracts, up 18,019, or 1.48%, from 1.285 million a week earlier.
The most-active Dec contract declined to $5.07 ¼ a bushel from $5.65 ¼.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers last week ranged from $174.90 per cwt to $189.24, compared with the previous week’s range of $179.20 to $190.48 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $283.11 per cwt to $292.33, compared with $284.31 to $292.45.
The USDA choice cutout Friday was down $0.22 per cwt at $301.79 while select was off $1.83 at $276.48. The choice/select spread widened to $25.31 from $23.70 with 85 loads of fabricated product and 36 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were steady at $1.85 to $2.05 a bushel over the Sep corn contract, which settled at $4.84 1/4 a bushel, up $0.03 1/2.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Thursday was $245.84 per cwt, up $0.90. This compares with Friday’s Aug contract settlement of $249.52 per cwt, up $1.57.