Longer CBOT Day To Affect Elevators

Progressive Farmer:

Grain buyers and elevators are going have to deal with issues of the settlement price in the CBOT open pit as well as a closing price on electronic trading nearly three hours later under the push for 22-hour electronic trading of grains and oilseeds.

Moreover, grain merchandisers could be faced with making quick market calls on USDA report days as electronic trading rolls right through release of USDA production and stocks reports.

Those are a few of the concerns raised after CME Group announced Tuesday that it would expand electronic trading hours for CBOT grain and oilseed futures to 22 hours a day, running effectively from a 6 p.m. CDT open to 4 p.m. close on Monday through Friday, and starting up trade again on Sunday at 5 p.m. CDT.

Yet, the open-outcry, or trading floor, at CME Group will continue to trade those contracts from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. CDT Monday through Friday.

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service and its board are discussing the implications of a 22-hour trading day on the agency's report calendar. "Any change to the report release schedule is complex, has far-reaching impact, and would be taken very deliberatively," said Hubert Hamer, chair of the NASS Agricultural Statistics Board.

The CME's move comes after the IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. had announced earlier that it would offer corn and soybean contracts starting May 14 as part of a foray into more North American agricultural markets. The ICE trading will begin at 7 p.m. CDT and close at 5 p.m. EDT.

Fun, fun.  This will let the speculators screw up more markets more of the time.  No rest for the wicked.