CHICAGO, Feb. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 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."

In addition to the measures described above, CME Group recently added livestock products to its messaging efficiency program on Monday, February 1.

For more information on the above modifications to CME livestock futures and options markets or to provide your feedback to other measures visit www.cmegroup.com/livestock updates.

Live Cattle, Feeder Cattle and Lean Hog futures and options contracts are all listed with an subject to the rules and regulations of CME.

As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform, its trading facilities in New York and Chicago, and through its London-based CME Europe derivatives exchange. CME Group also operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers through CME Clearing and CME Clearing Europe, which offer clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. KCBOT, KCBT and Kansas City Board of Trade are trademarks of The Board of Trade of Kansas City, Missouri, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.

CME-G

SOURCE CME Group