Commodities

USDA Will Not Issue Final 2008-Crop Counter-Cyclical Payments for Peanuts, Corn, Grain Sorghum and Soybeans

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA will not issue final 2008 counter-cyclical payments to farmers enrolled in the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program for peanuts, corn, grain sorghum, soybeans and oats because average commodity prices remain above levels that trigger these payments.

USDA will issue payments for upland cotton beginning today. The final counter-cyclical payment rate for upland cotton is 12.58 cents per pound - the statutory maximum level. Producers who received a partial payment will receive 7.55 cents per pound, the final rate of 12.58 cents less the partial payment rate of 5.03 cents per pound.    » read more »

CHICAGO, June 5 -- CME Group, a derivatives exchange, announced today that electronic trading hours for the CBOT grains, oilseeds and ethanol contracts will be expanded in the morning by one hour and fifteen minutes, until 7:15 a.m., beginning July 1.

The new electronic trading hours will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:15 a.m. Chicago time Sunday through Friday for futures and options on futures for full and mini-size where offered corn, wheat, soybeans, soymeal, soyoil, rice, oats and ethanol contracts. Daytime electronic and open outcry hours will remain from 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. weekdays.    » read more »

BURLINGTON, Vt., May 29 – As crude oil prices jumped to the highest level in six months, Senator Bernie Sanders urged federal regulators yesterday to stop speculators from artificially driving up prices.

Sanders said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should use its emergency powers – which include the authority to impose speculation limits, increase margin requirements, and suspend trading – in order to ensure that oil prices accurately reflect supply and demand.

“I hope you will seize this opportunity to redefine the CFTC as a strong regulator that will do everything within its power to benefit consumers,” Sanders said in a letter to Gary Gensler, the commission’s new chairman.    » read more »

As President, Barack Obama will restore common-sense regulation to ease the impact of soaring gas prices

June 22, 2008 -- Chicago, IL - Senator Barack Obama today announced his plan to crack down on excessive energy speculation and fully close the "Enron Loophole" to ease the impact skyrocketing gas prices.

California gas prices, June, 2008: Photo by .pie (CC)    » read more »

June 17, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) released the following statement today, after hearing the testimony of Walter Lukken, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC), before a joint hearing of Durbin’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government and the Senate Agriculture Committee.

“Increasing evidence shows that the run-up in crude oil prices and gasoline is being driven by larger trader banks, pension and hedge funds. Speculation may have as much, if not more, to do with high gas prices than any Saudi Sheik."    » read more »

Measure would level the playing field in energy futures markets

June 13, 2008 -- Washington, DC – In the wake of growing concerns about the impact of speculation, U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) have introduced legislation to require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to impose the same position limits on institutional investors to which other investors now are subject. This legislation would essentially level the playing field in energy futures markets.

Under current law, CFTC is required to impose speculation limits on the size of energy trader positions. However, in practice, CFTC regularly exempts institutional investors from position limits, when investors execute their trades through brokers or dealers.    » read more »

June 12, 2008 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, introduced legislation today to increase the resources and authority of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The CFTC is the federal agency responsible for regulating oil and commodity futures markets. The legislation is cosponsored by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Carl Levin (D-MI), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).    » read more »

Senators push to put a ‘cop on the beat’ to crack down on manipulation and excessive speculation

June 12, 2008 -- WASHINGTON – Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) today introduced, along with Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), the Close the London Loophole Act, [PDF] which would ensure that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has the same authority to detect, prevent, and punish manipulation and excessive speculation for traders in the United States who trade crude U.S. oil or other energy commodities on foreign commodity exchanges as the CFTC has for traders who trade on U.S. exchanges.    » read more »

First Results of March 2008 SEC-CFTC Memorandum of Understanding

Washington, D.C., June 3, 2008 — The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that each has approved the trading and clearing of two novel derivative products — futures and option contracts based on shares of the SPDR® Gold Trust (Gold Trust), an exchange traded fund (ETF). The SEC approved trading in options on the Gold Trust shares and the CFTC approved trading in futures on them.    » read more »

June 3, 2008 -- In remarks presented at a High-Level Conference on World Food Security in Rome, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn today warned that high food prices are a serious humanitarian concern as well as a source of macroeconomic instability affecting budgets, trade balances, prices and incomes almost everywhere in the world.

He urged donor governments and agencies to move swiftly to support appropriate food aid, particularly for the world's poor, calling effective action a "moral and economic imperative."    » read more »

BURLINGTON, June 2 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today that excessive speculation on oil futures by Wall Street hedge funds and such major financial investment houses as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are driving oil and gas prices much higher than they should be based on supply and demand fundamentals.

Gas prices in Elmont, New York, June 2, 2008: Photo by scarlatti2004 (CC)    » read more »

June 2, 2008 -- With the summer harvest season right around the corner, and roadside produce stands popping up at country intersections across the state, the end of spring is a mouthwatering time to think about Michigan agriculture.

When, after months of delays, Congress recently passed the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, also known as the Farm Bill, the season was appropriate. This critical legislation – which was passed over a presidential veto – will offer a boost to the Michigan farmers who sell their produce locally and who send Michigan-grown agriculture across the country. The bill will also crack down on speculators who are driving high energy prices, and offer much-needed support for conservation, biofuels and nutrition programs.    » read more »

Statement of Joan Claybrook, President, Public Citizen

May 30, 2008 -- "We applaud the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for publicly acknowledging what most educated observers have been saying for months: Wall Street speculators are reaping unconscionable profits by exploiting and manipulating the unregulated energy trading markets.

Commodity traders have pushed oil prices far higher than what can be explained by basic supply and demand. Under mounting pressure from Congress, the trading commission announced this week that it has been investigating oil trading practices for the past six months.    » read more »

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., May 20, 2008 — Whether for stopping cars or bullets, titanium is the material of choice, but it has always been too expensive for all but the most specialized applications.

That could change, however, with a non-melt consolidation process being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partners. The new processing technique could reduce the amount of energy required and the cost to make titanium parts from powders by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, artificial joint replacements and, of significant interest now, armor for military vehicles.    » read more »

Requests Federal RFS Mandate Waiver

Apr. 25, 2008 -- AUSTIN – Seeking immediate relief from skyrocketing food costs, Texas Governor Rick Perry today asked the federal government for a 50 percent waiver from the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) mandate for ethanol produced from grain.

Combine harvester: Photo by lapstrake (CC)    » read more »