NAPERVILLE, Illinois, March 17 Reuters Speculators covered short positions in Chicago corn and soybeans last week, chipping away at their stillmassive bearish bets as futures continued climbing off multiyear lows.

In the week ended on March 12, money managers cut their net short position in CBOT soybean futures and options to 155,137 contracts from a record 171,999 in the prior week, predominantly on short covering. This was the first week with funds as net bean buyers in 17 weeks, ending a recordlong selling stretch.

Mostactive CBOT soybean futures during the week jumped 4 and were up 6 from a Feb. 29 low, which was the lowest price since November 2020. Mostactive corn futures , as of March 12, also rose 9 from touching their lowest since November 2020 late last month.

Corn was up 3.6 in the week ended on March 12, and money managers were heavily axing gross short positions for the second time in three weeks. Their net short fell to 255,928 futures and options contracts from 296,795 a week earlier.

The managed money corn net short hit a record 340,732 futures and options contracts on Feb. 20, though recent short covering put funds March 12 position even with the same date in 2019, which featured a record net short at the time. Six weeks later, the pre2024 record short was reached.

A big yearonyear jump in global corn and soybean supplies slashed prices in recent months and pushed speculators into record short bets, but some of that selling may have been overdone,…