CHICAGO, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange, announced today the launch of calendar spread options for corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil futures, scheduled to be available for trading on June 1. These contracts are listed with, and subject to, the rules and regulations of the Chicago Board of Trade. Options on calendar spreads will enable customers to mitigate the risk of changing price differentials between successive futures contract months when rolling from one futures contract month to another. These new products will also provide grain merchandisers and processors with an additional tool to manage risks related to grain storage and purchase requirements. "Feedback from customers and the agribusiness industry is that they would like another tool to manage price risk on the price spread among the three nearby contract months as well as the differential of the old crop and new crop months," said Barry Goldblatt, CME Group Managing Director of Commodity, Energy and Metals Products. The calendar spread options will be available on CME Globex(R) and on the trading floors in the corn, wheat, soybean, soybean meal, and soybean oil options pits. Trading hours will be the same as for options on grain futures: on CME Globex from 6:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. Central time, Sunday through Friday, and on the trading floors 9:30 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. weekdays. The contracts will feature European style exercise into the two respective futures contracts at expiration. CME Group (http://www.cmegroup.com/) is the world's largest and most diverse derivatives exchange. Building on the heritage of CME, CBOT and NYMEX, CME Group serves the risk management needs of customers around the globe. As an international marketplace, CME Group brings buyers and sellers together on the CME Globex electronic trading platform and on trading floors in Chicago and New York. By acting as the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer, CME Clearing virtually eliminates counterparty credit risk. CME Clearing also offers financial safeguards to help mitigate systemic risk, providing the security and confidence market participants need to operate, invest and grow. CME Group offers the widest range of benchmark products available across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, and alternative investment products such as weather and real estate. CME Group is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol "CME." The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group and its products can be found at http://www.cmegroup.com/. CME-G DATASOURCE: CME Group CONTACT: Media, Mary Haffenberg, +1-312-930-3435, or Allan Schoenberg, +1-312-930-8189, , or Investors, John Peschier, +1-312-930-8491, all of CME Group Web Site: http://www.cme.com/

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