Funds cut positions in CBOT grains and oilseeds ahead of key US data

Grains, Cereal & Legumes

United States

Market & Price Trends

Published Mar 27, 2024

Tridge summary

For the second week in a row, speculators have been covering their short positions in grains and oilseeds traded in Chicago, leading to a rise in futures prices from recent lows. This activity comes after the collective fund's position was at its most bearish in mid-March. Significant adjustments were made, especially in CBOT soybean oil futures and options, where money managers greatly reduced their net short positions, resulting in soybean oil futures reaching a three-month high on March 18. Adjustments were also seen in corn, soybeans, soybean meal, and wheat, with corn and wheat futures achieving multi-week highs. The market's attention is now turned towards the upcoming USDA release of 2024 planting plans and quarterly inventory data, with a keen interest in the potential recovery of US soybean acreage.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

Speculators last week covered short positions in Chicago-traded grains and oilseeds for the second week in a row as futures continued to rise from recent multi-year lows. The collective fund's position is at its most bearish as of mid-March, which has seen relatively muted market performance at times as traders await key data on U.S. inventories and acreage later in the month. In the week ending March 19, the most active CBOT corn and soybean prices were down slightly, while wheat and soybean oil prices were up slightly. Soybean meal fell in price by 1.6%. Money managers' most notable move in the week ended March 19 was the reduction of their net short position in CBOT soybean oil futures and options to 14,748 contracts from 33,410 the week before and 62,473 two weeks earlier. Soybean oil futures rose 7% over those two weeks, marking the funds' largest round of short covering since June, with the most active contract hitting a three-month high on March 18. Global vegetable oil ...

Source: Oilworld