Grain Futures Pull Back as Large Specs Load Up on Longs

Grain futures experienced modest pullbacks to start the trading week and on the last day of August, but December corn hit a contract and three-year high overnight, while November soybeans reached a contract and 2.5-year high.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) commitments of traders report for the week ending August 25 showed that managed money and speculative funds aggressively expanded their bullish bets across major grain futures markets.

Large specs drastically increased their net long positions, pushing some markets to multi-year high fund exposure. For corn, managed money added 126,008 contracts to their net long position, bringing their total to 376,513 contracts, the largest speculative long position since April 2022.