Grain investors race for the exits amid fresh virus panic: Braun

Grain investors race for the exits amid fresh virus panic: Braun

FORT COLLINS, Colo.- An abrupt commodity selloff right after the Thanksgiving holiday had speculators and especially index traders dumping their positions in Chicago grains and oilseeds, but market participants retain relatively bullish views after an uptick late last week. Fears surrounding a new coronavirus variant rattled both grain and outside markets just over a week ago, and that was immediately after traders had piled into CBOT grains, largely as a hedge against escalating inflation. In the week ended Nov. 30, commodity index traders dumped more than 154,000 CBOT wheat and corn futures and options contracts, including both longs and shorts. That is a record for a single week and represented a 17% reduction in the total corn and wheat positions. Money managers were also relatively big sellers of CBOT corn futures and options through Nov. 30, as their net long fell by more than 51,000 to 315,269 contracts. That was their second biggest corn selling week of 2021 following the week ended May 11. That is according to data published Friday afternoon by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The week ended Nov. 30 had only four days due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, and trade was volatile on the