The thousands of reports that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues came to a stop when the U.S. federal government shut down on Tuesday. For grain traders this means not having a key report on weekly grain export sales but traders are getting information and a feel for the weekly grain sales from reports from farmers and grain elevators. The loss of USDA data is more critical for the livestock industry. Daily USDA market data is used by meat packers to determine the price to pay livestock producers for their hogs and cattle. The CME Group relies on the USDA data to calculate prices for lean hogs and feeder cattle futures contracts at expiration. The final settlement day for lean hogs is October 16th with the final trade day October 14th. If the government shutdown continues, CME may need to change price settlement procedures upon expiration. Both the lean hog and feeder cattle price indices are shut down and the lack of information is creating an environment in the markets of high risk.
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