Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI(R)) Revises Commodity Weights For 2006

Goldman Sachs Inc. today announced the 2006 composition and weights for the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI(R)) trading at CME, the world's largest and most diverse financial exchange. The first futures contract to be affected by the change is the February 2006 contract, which is scheduled to be listed on the CME(R) Globex(R) electronic trading platform on Nov. 16, 2005.

The GSCI is a world production-weighted commodity index which in 2006 will be composed of 24 liquid exchange-traded futures contracts. The GSCI includes energy, industrial metals, precious metals, agricultural and livestock products. The 2006 GSCI will include all of the futures contracts in the 2005 GSCI. No new commodities will enter the index and no existing commodities will be removed from the Index.

The GSCI has become the premier global commodity benchmark for measuring investment performance in the commodity markets. Designed as a reliable and publicly available benchmark, the GSCI tracks real economic activity as well as measuring the level of world commodity prices. CME introduced futures and options on the GSCI Spot Index in July 1992. For the first six months of 2005, more than 250,000 CME GSCI Index futures contacts traded, an increase in volume of 18.5 percent over the same period in 2004.

For further information, please go to http://www.cme.com or visit the Goldman Sachs Web site at http://www.gs.com/gsci .