OREANDA-NEWS. CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced it will take a number of steps designed to further enhance its livestock markets.   

  • Reduction of CME livestock trading hours: based on customer requests, CME livestock futures and options trading hours will be reduced to align with the period of greatest liquidity in these markets. During 2015, roughly 87 percent of daily livestock futures and options trades occurred during the proposed hours.

Effective Monday, February 29, and pending CFTC approval, the proposed trading hours for Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle and Lean Hog futures and options will be as follows:

    • CME Globex futures and options – 8:30 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. CT Monday to Friday
    • Open outcry options – 8:30 a.m. to 1:02 p.m. CT Monday to Friday

The daily settlement period and procedures for CME livestock contracts will remain unchanged.

  • Review of Worthing, South Dakota delivery point for Live Cattle: CME Group will conduct a public review with cattle customers to study if a discount is warranted at its Worthing delivery point for Live Cattle futures. The review will take place during the month of February and potential changes will be announced during Q1 of 2016.
  • Formation of a cattle market joint working group: CME Group will form a working group with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association to discuss other possible enhancements to its cattle markets, including, but not limited to, circuit breakers and other measures to further heighten market quality.

"Nothing is more important to us than the integrity of our markets, which help farmers and ranchers to discover prices and transfer risk," said Tim Andriesen, CME Group Managing Director of Agricultural Products. "We believe these actions will further enhance our cattle markets for all participants."