A measure of 11 U.S. farm goods showed speculators reduced bullish bets in agricultural commodities by 22 percent to 415,498 contracts, the biggest decline since Nov. 22, 2011. Corn holdings fell 14 percent to 202,853 contracts, the lowest since early July.
Speculators more than tripled their net-short bets in cotton to 19,327 contracts, the most bearish position since May 2007. The U.S. Department of Agriculture boosted its outlook for global inventories by 1.5 percent to 80.27 million bales on Nov. 9, forecasting the biggest glut ever.
"The quantitative easing story pushed commodities higher, and it was the fallacy of market participants to expect prices to continue to gain as there are too many uncertainties," said Michael Shaoul, the chairman of New York-based Marketfield Asset Management, which oversees about $3.5 billion of assets. "I continue to remain bearish on commodities."