Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 2-CME set to extend hours for pit grain trading - traders

Reuters: Regulatory News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 2-CME set to extend hours for pit grain trading - traders May 24th 2012, 00:44 Wed May 23, 2012 8:44pm EDT * Traders say CME plans to extend pit close to 2 pm * CME chairman says exchange not opposed to longer hours * CME grain pits to open early on USDA report days * CME to file new schedule with CFTC on Thursday - traders By Julie Ingwersen and Tom Polansek CHICAGO, May 23 (Reuters) - Exchange operator CME Group plans to apply for federal approval on Thursday to extend its open-outcry grain trading session, ensuring its raucous Chicago pits will be in full swing before the next major U.S. agricultural report in June, grain traders said after a private meeting with CME officials. Executive Chairman Terrence Duffy said at a media conference after its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday that CME had no objections to extending pit grain trading if floor traders supported the move. Options traders, in particular, want longer hours so that their open-outcry pits can be open when the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues crop reports at 7:30 a.m. Chicago time (1230 GMT), Duffy said. Most options trading is done in the pits and floor traders have complained a newly expanded electronic trading cycle will reduce their volume on report days. Options traders "feel that if the government releases their reports at 7:30 and other venues of trade will be open, that they need to be open also," Duffy said. "I happen to agree with them," he said. CME Chief Executive Phupinder Gill said a decision on whether to seek expanded trading hours would be made within "the next few days." He said CME would support "whatever the floor wants, if it makes sense." Traders at the private meeting, held on CME's historic Chicago Board of Trade grain trading floor, said CME intends to start pit trading in grains at 7:20 a.m. Chicago time (1220 GMT) on the days the USDA releases key market-sensitive reports. That would include monthly world agricultural supply/demand reports and quarterly U.S. grain stocks reports. The CME also plans to keep the pits open until 2 p.m. Chicago time (1900 GMT), to match the new closing time for its electronic markets, traders said. Currently, pit grain trading ends at 1:15 p.m. (1815 GMT). REGULATORY APPROVAL Traders said the CME intends to file a notice on Thursday with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission about the expanded pit hours, giving regulators at least 10 business days to review the plan before the USDA releases its next monthly supply/demand report on June 12. "They need to file tomorrow to get 10 days ahead of the next crop report," said one trader who attended the meeting. The USDA releases monthly and quarterly reports at 7:30 a.m. CDT (1230 GMT), so the earlier open would give pit traders 10 minutes to review the data before the start of trading. Until this week, electronic and open-outcry trading were closed from 7:15 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Central time, meaning both were shut when the USDA issued crop reports. CME electronic trading for grains expanded this week to a continuous 21-hour cycle. Screen trading currently is open from 5 p.m. Central on Sunday to 2 p.m. Central Monday and repeats that pattern daily to 2 p.m. Friday. CME extended its electronic grain trading hours one week after rival IntercontinentalExchange launched five U.S. grain and oilseed futures contracts that trade electronically on a 22-hour-a-day schedule. Traders said CME is considering whether to open pit trading at 7:20 a.m. on every business day, but the traders said some trading firms were reluctant to staff their desks for the additional hours on a regular basis. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Tuesday the USDA will seek public input before it considers changing the release times of market-moving reports Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions