CHICAGO, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Large speculators cut their bullish bets on corn and soybeans as a broad selloff in grains brought the market near levels last seen before a drought sparked a rally that sent prices to record highs, regulatory data released on Friday showed.
Noncommercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, cut their net long in soybeans by 29 percent, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly Commitments of Traders report. It was the biggest reduction to the soybean long in percentage terms in more than 10 months. The 22 percent drop in the corn long was the biggest in percentage terms since late May.
The report showed that speculators sold 24,565 long contracts from their soybean stake while adding 9,537 shorts in the week ended Nov. 13. The moves left them with a net long position in the commodity of 95,554 contracts, their smallest since Feb. 21.
In corn, the noncommercial net long of 135,565 was the smallest since June 26. Speculators cut 23,119 long contracts and added 15,327 shorts to their corn holdings.
Soybean prices dropped 5.9 percent and corn fell 2.4 percent during the five trading days ended Nov. 13. The markets have continued to weaken during the past three trading days.
Speculators have been lightening their net longs in corn and soybeans throughout the fall as results from the harvest showed that the yield impact of the worst drought in more than 50 years was less than expected.
Poor demand on the export market for U.S. commodities due to the high prices also has led to some unwinding of the bullish positions.
In wheat, speculators trimmed their net short position amid growing concerns about crop shortfalls in key production areas around the globe such as Australia and Argentina. The weather concerns bolstered expectations of rising global demand for U.S. wheat, although no new deals had been struck.
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