The jump in the net long position held by speculators in the corn market was accompanied by a surge in open interest – a measure of how many contracts were being held on the exchange – to the highest level since June 2021.
Corn prices jumped during the period covered by the CFTC report after the January edition of the USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report on January 10 reduced projections of US and global production and ending stocks in the 2024/25 marketing year.
Soybean futures also climbed during the period after the WASDE reduced the forecast of both US 2024/25 soybean and ending stocks.
The three US wheat contracts were little changed during the same period, as market participants sat on the sidelines after the USDA increased its estimates for US and global wheat ending stocks for the 2024/25 marketing year, while leaving domestic production and export projections unchanged in the WASDE. In a separate report on January 10 the USDA said that the 2025 US winter wheat planted acreage increased 2% from last year.
In the corn market, speculators reduced short positions by 13,036 lots, bringing the total to 100,940 lots, a 99-week low.
Long positions climbed by 25,846 lots from the prior week to 393,168 lots, a 154-week high.
The decrease in short positions, coupled with the surge in long positions, boosted the net long by 38,882 lots to 292,228 lots, a 139-week high.
Open interest in the corn market jumped by 239,370 contracts to 2,371,997, a 189-week high.
Managed money investors in the soybean market trimmed short positions by 45,334 lots in the week to Tuesday, bringing the total to 90,441 lots, a 54-week low.
Soybean long positions jumped by 18,111 lots to 125,274 lots, a 77-week high.
The tremendous decline in shorts, coupled with the large gain in longs resulted in the market moving from a net short of 26,612 in the week ended January 7 to a net long of 34,833 on January 14. Soybeans were last net long in the week ended December 26, 2023.
The soybean oil market moved from a net short position of 31,999 lots to a net long of 7,650 lots.
The soybean meal net short climbed by 4,896 lots to 63,520 lots.
In the Chicago wheat market, which is the largest of the three, speculators boosted short positions by 4,489 lots to 179,527 lots, a 59-week high.
Long positions slipped by 1,267 lots to 85,134 lots.
The gain in short positions and the decrease in long positions bolstered the net short position by 5,756 lots to 94,393 lots.
Managed money investors in the Kansas wheat contract bolstered short positions by 2,070 lots to 85,375 lots.
Speculators trimmed their long positions by 3,678 lots to 47,769 lots.
The gain in short positions coupled with the reduction in long positions, increased the net short position by 5,748 lots to 37,606 lots.
Investors in the Minneapolis wheat contract boosted short positions by 391 lots to 39,963 lots.
The number of long positions rose by 1,478 lots to 11,665 lots. This led to the net short position slipping by 1,087 lots to 28,298 lots.
