NAPERVILLE, Illinois, March 24 (Reuters) - Speculators last week covered short positions in Chicago-traded grains and oilseeds for a second consecutive week as futures continued climbing off recent multi-year lows.

The collective fund positioning is the most bearish for mid-March, which sometimes features relatively tamer market action as traders await pivotal U.S. stocks and acreage data at the end of the month.

In the week ended March 19, most-active CBOT corn and soybeans declined fractionally while wheat and soybean oil notched fractional gains. Soybean meal fell 1.6%.

Money managers’ most notable move in the week ended March 19 was the slashing of their net short in CBOT soybean oil futures and options, to 14,748 contracts from 33,410 a week earlier and 62,473 two weeks earlier.

Soyoil futures rose 7% in those two weeks, which featured the biggest round of fund short covering since June, and the most-active contract on March 18 hit a three-month top. Global vegoil prices as well as U.S. crude and gasoline futures have strengthened this month, which began with speculators holding their most bearish ever early March soyoil views.

Funds are holding their most bearish mid-March meal views, but they trimmed their net short in the week ended March 19 despite the price slide. That resulted in a managed money net short of 46,874 CBOT soybean meal futures and options contracts versus 50,935 in the prior week.

Money managers covered shorts in CBOT soybean futures and options through March 19, trimming their net short by less than 7,000 to 148,339 contracts, two weeks removed from the record of 171,999.

The week ended March 19 featured some notable short covering in CBOT corn futures and options, though less so than in the previous week. Money managers cut their corn net short to 242,988 contracts from 255,928 a week before, which is similar positioning as in March 2019.

Commodity index traders’ total number of positions in CBOT corn futures and options topped 700,000 contracts last week for the first time since June 2022. Those have expanded by 55% since late December, the type of growth last seen in late 2020.

CBOT wheat futures were up through March 19, but money managers expanded their net short to a 15-week high of 80,570 futures and options contracts from 78,870 a week earlier. That resembles funds’ year-ago position when wheat futures were trading 24% higher.

CBOT corn, soybeans, soybean meal and wheat all made multi-week highs on either Thursday or Friday. Corn was unchanged over the last three sessions, soyoil slid 1%, meal added 1.6% and wheat and beans notched fractional gains.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will publish 2024 planting intentions and quarterly stock data on Thursday, which will be the market’s focus this week in addition to weather for Brazil’s corn crop. Analysts expect a rebound in U.S. soybean acres versus last year. Karen Braun is a market analyst for Reuters. Views expressed above are her own.

(Editing by David Gregorio)