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CME Announces Weight Increase For Deliverable Live Cattle

Date 23/05/2002

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) announced that it changed the delivery specifications of the live cattle contract to reflect a 25 pound increase of the average live weight to a maximum of 1,325 pounds and of the maximum individual animal live weight to 1,375 pounds. These changes will become effective with the June 2003 contract, which began trading today, May 23.

CME made the decision to change the delivery weight specifications of the live cattle contract in order to keep pace with the heavier trending weights in the live steer market.

All other contract specifications are unchanged.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® around-the-clock electronic trading platform. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.6 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.4 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.