CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of Cheese futures and options on futures. The cash-settled contracts will be available on CME Globex®, the exchange’s electronic trading platform, with trading scheduled to begin on June 20, 2010, for trade date June 21. These contracts will be listed by and subject to the rules and regulations of CME.
“This contract was requested by our customers such as manufacturers and processors of cheese to better fit the needs of their risk profile,” said Tim Andriesen, CME Group Managing Director of Agricultural Commodities. “Many of these customers already participate in our Class III Milk and Dry Whey futures and options markets. The new Cheese contracts will enable them to directly lock in future prices for cheese.”
Cheese is made from Class III milk. Dry whey is a byproduct of processing the milk into cheese. Manufacturers, processors, food companies and others have used the Class III contract to meet their hedging needs since 1996 and the Dry Whey futures contract launched in 2007. The Cheese futures will complete the “dairy crush” with which the original commodity as well as its product and byproducts can be hedged.
The new contracts will be listed monthly with each contract representing the equivalent of 20,000 pounds of cheese and the tick size of $0.001 per pound. Trading hours are Sunday through Friday, 5:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Chicago time with daily trading halts from 4:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information, please www.cmegroup.com/cheese.
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 and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets.
