Non-commercial grain market participants strengthened their net long positions in corn futures in the week through Tuesday, increasing to 362,525 contracts from 327,515 the previous week, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday.
From June 7 to June 14, long positions rose to 526,413 contracts from 498,527, while short positions dropped to 163,888 contracts from 171,012, the CFTC said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report, issued after the market close.
Non-commercial market participants are large institutional investors, hedge funds and other entities trading in the futures market for investment. They are typically not involved directly in the production, distribution or management of the underlying commodity.
Their continued net long position could be interpreted by other market participants as bullish because it indicates non-commercial funds expect prices to rise. But at the same time, market participants are expected to be careful of possible changes triggered by investors' use of stop orders or protective options to cover their positions or for profit taking.
Front-month CBOT corn futures settled Friday 12.5 cents higher at $4.3775/bushel.
Corn is the main competitor for DDGs and also the main source of US-produced ethanol.
