Speculators long stake in soyabeans at one-month high

Large speculators' long stake in Chicago Board of Trade soyabean futures and options climbed to a one-month high in the wake of a government forecast for stocks of the oilseed to dwindle to a three-week supply by the end of the summer, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
The non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, also narrowly trimmed their net short position in corn and increased their net short position in wheat, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitment of traders report.
Index traders, who typically hold positions for longer periods of time than their managed counterparts, reduced their holdings in both corn and soyabeans, bringing their net long stake in corn to the smallest in three months. In soyabeans, the large speculators added 27,896 long positions and reduced 8,325 short positions, bringing their position in soyabeans to a net long of 178,059 contracts, which is below the record long position of 224,822 contracts set in early May.
"The beans have been hot relative to corn and wheat. Naturally, we saw a good number of new longs enter the market," said Citigroup analyst Terry Reilly. The US Agriculture Department released their monthly supply and demand report on Tuesday, the final trading day reflected in the CFTC data. USDA forecast soya stocks to fall to a three-week supply in August and shrivel to a two-week supply in August 2013, the second-smallest total in 10 years.
CBOT soyabean futures rose 0.7 percent on Tuesday before declining the rest of this week on worries that a weekend election in Greece could lead to the country exiting the euro zone. Large speculators reduced their net short position in CBOT corn futures one week after they took a net short stake for the first time in nearly two years. The non-commercials cut 4,697 long positions and 8,103 short positions, resulting in a net short of 2,976 contracts.
Non-commercials added 6,934 short contracts in CBOT wheat as well as 1,503 long contracts, resulting in a net short of 57,102 contracts, the largest short position in a month, CFTC data shows. Index funds were net long 397,051 contracts in corn, down 1,344 contracts from the previous week. They were net long 150,557 contracts in soyabeans, down 603 contracts from a week ago. In wheat, index funds were net long 201,113 contracts, up 2,350 net long contracts from the previous week.