Expanded CME trading hours have put lots of people on edge about the release of USDA grains reports -- including CME itself.
Gerald Bange, who heads USDA's supply and demand reports, says that after the most recent report he heard from CME Managing Director Dave Lehman, who was concerned about trading activity in the minute ahead of the report.
The question: Did the report somehow leak out early? The answer is a definitive "no," Bange says. USDA officials add that they have no plans to change their policy of allowing media in a "lock-up" to pore over the data ahead of its official release.
