London, 2 April 2011

Commodities Now: CME Group has announced record volume in Corn Calendar Swaps. On Thursday, Mar. 31, Corn Calendar Swap volume reached a record of 11,710 contracts, surpassing the previous record of 3,331 contracts set on Jan. 12, 2011.

Corn Calendar Swaps were pushed higher in part by the release of the USDA’s Prospective Plantings Report on Thursday, which noted that U.S. farmers intended to plant 92.2 million corn acres this spring versus 88.2 million acres in 2010. Also historically low stock-to-usage levels of corn contributed to CBOT Corn futures ending limit up in trading yesterday.

“This is another important example of how commercial grain market participants are increasingly using CME Group cleared OTC products as part of their risk management toolkit,” said Tim Andriesen, Managing Director, Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments. “Cleared OTC products provide another avenue to manage risk within our wide array of commodity products.”

CME Group Corn Calendar Swaps are cleared through CME ClearPort and are settled to the corresponding CBOT Corn futures contract closest to but not before the calendar swap month.

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