CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--CME Group (CME) is not planning to expand trading hours for agricultural products, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
Grains and oilseeds currently trade in the pit and electronically from 10:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. EST, and there is electronic-only trading from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. EST. Rumors have spread across the floor Wednesday and Thursday that CME was considering adding electronic-only trading from as early as 8:15 a.m. to as late as 4:30 p.m. EST.
"We have no plans at this time to change the hours," CME spokeswoman Mary Haffenberg said Thursday.
She added that "we are always reviewing the performance of our products for improvement and to meet customer demand."
Some traders said expanded trading hours could create what one trader called "pockets of illiquidity" that could lead to greater, unpredictable price swings. A trader said such an expansion would also drive away more pit traders. On the days of major U.S. Department of Agriculture reports, for instance, those trading electronically would be able to trade the report for a couple hours before open-outcry trading started.
An analyst said maintaining electronic trade after the pit close could render pit settlements useless.
Futures on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange, which are traded electronically, still settle based on the former pit settlement times, but "after hours" electronic trading continues after the settlement.
-By Ian Berry, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-341-5778; ian.berry@dowjones.com