MarketsFarm — After covering bearish bets for four straight weeks, managed money fund traders were back on the sell side of the canola market in late April, covering longs and putting on new short positions.
According to the latest Commitments of Traders report from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as of April 25, the net managed money short position in canola futures came in at 51,925 contracts (72,516 short, 20,591 long) — an increase of about 7,000 contracts from the previous week.
Open interest in the canola market came in at 257,170 contracts on April 25, down about 14,600 from the previous week.
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Chicago Board of Trade corn futures set contract lows and soybean futures sagged on Friday on expectations that beneficial weather for U.S. crops will lead to bumper harvests, analysts said.
At the Chicago Board of Trade, fund traders were holding a net long of about 87,300 contracts in soybeans which was down sharply from the previous week as traders liquidated 38,500 longs and put on nearly 10,000 new shorts.
Meanwhile, corn moved from a net long of about 57,000 contracts to a net short of 10,000 on a combination of long liquidation and new shorts going on the books.
In wheat, the Chicago soft wheat market reported a net short position of about 114,000 contracts. The funds were holding a net long position in K.C. hard red winter wheat of around 6,600. In Minneapolis spring wheat, managed money traders holding were holding a net short of around 3,400 contracts.
— Phil Franz-Warkentin is an associate editor/analyst with MarketsFarm in Winnipeg.
