CHICAGO--CME Group Inc. (CME) will expand its open-outcry trading hours until 3 p.m. ET starting June 25, an extension of 45 minutes, the exchange announced Friday. The move means that futures prices for corn, soybeans and wheat will settle at 3 p.m., instead of 2:15 p.m. The move, pending review by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is the latest of several changes by the exchange to expand trading hours in response to new futures contracts being offered by IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE). CME expanded its electronic trading to 21 hours per day, up from 17 hours, last month. It later announced it would move up the start of open-outcry trade to 8:20 a.m. ET on government crop report days in response to complaints from floor traders worried they would be shut out of a crucial trading period. That move is still pending CFTC approval. The expanded open-outcry hours announced Friday are in part a response to concerns from traders and grain elevators. Cash grain traders said the recent schedule, in which grain settlement prices were established 45 minutes before futures actually stopped trading, caused confusion for grain elevators. Along with the schedule change, CME also plans to implement its new settlment procedures on June 25. The new settlement procedures will incorporate electronic trades, rather than just open-outcry trades. CME announced its intent to alter settlment procedures in December. It orignally planned to implement the new procedures in March or April, but later said they wouldn't take effect until June. Write to Ian Berry at ian.berry@dowjones.com; Twitter: @enberry
