Category
Agricultural
Exchange
CME
Contract Size
40,000 pounds of live steers
Symbol
LE
Live Cattle futures track the price of fed cattle ready for slaughter. The cattle market is influenced by feed costs (corn), consumer demand, and cattle-on-feed reports. Cattle futures can be volatile around USDA reports and seasonal demand shifts. The cattle crush (feeder cattle → live cattle) is a popular spread trade.
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Mon–Fri 08:30–13:05 CT (electronic 15:00–13:05 CT next day).
Exchange maintenance margin ~$2,000–$2,500.
CBOT Corn futures (ZC) are a benchmark for the global grain market. Corn is the world's most widely produced cereal grain with uses spanning food, animal feed, and ethanol production. Prices are driven by planting reports, weather patterns, USDA crop reports, and ethanol mandate policies.
ICE Cotton No. 2 futures are the global benchmark for cotton pricing. As a major textile input, cotton prices are affected by US planting data, Indian/Chinese production, consumer textile demand, and weather events in key growing regions (US Southern Plains, India, China).
CBOT Wheat futures (ZW) track the price of soft red winter wheat, a major food staple. Wheat prices are sensitive to weather, geopolitical events (Black Sea region supply), and USDA inventory reports. Three types of wheat futures exist: SRW (CBOT), HRW (KC), and spring wheat (MGEX).
CBOT Soybean futures (ZS) are a staple of the agricultural commodities market. Soybeans are processed into meal (animal feed), oil (cooking and biodiesel), and are heavily traded between the US, Brazil, Argentina, and China. The soybean complex (beans, meal, oil) offers numerous spread-trading opportunities.