Glacier FarmMedia | MarketsFarm — Fund traders were busy liquidating long positions and putting on new bearish bets in canola as tariff uncertainty from both China and the United States weighed on the futures in early March.
After hitting a record net long position for canola of 84,850 contracts on Feb. 25, speculators had reduced that position by about 57,000 contracts in the span of two weeks, according to the latest Commitments of Traders report from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The net managed money long position in canola futures came in at 27,939 contracts as of March 11 (78,476 long/50,537 short) — a decline of roughly 37,000 contracts from the previous week.
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Open interest in the canola market was only down by 2,177 on the week at 239,565 contracts.
Net short down in soybeans
At the Chicago Board of Trade, the net short position in soybeans of about 7,900 contracts was down by about 16,000 contracts from the previous week as traders covered some of those shorts and put on new longs. Meanwhile, soyoil moved from a net long position of 9,750 contracts to a net short of about 13,300.
Corn traders liquidate some longs
The net long position in corn was down by about 74,000 contracts to come in at roughly 132,400.
In wheat, the Chicago soft wheat market reported a net short position of 76,300 contracts. The net short in Kansas City hard red winter wheat came in at roughly 47,900 contracts. In Minneapolis spring wheat, managed money traders were holding a net short of around 25,600 contracts as of March 11.
