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Federal investigators probing the “flash crash” that briefly sliced nearly 1,000 points off the Dow Thursday are zeroing in on a series of “unusually high-volume” trades in S&P futures that originated in Chicago, a government official told POLITICO. Those trades set off a chain reaction of trades that caused the biggest drop within a single day in the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s storied history.

CBOT Corn Outlook:Sharply Down; Fund Liquidation To Continue Thu, Mar 20 2008, 13:27 GMT http://www.djnewswires.com/eu/ CBOT Corn Outlook:Sharply Down; Fund Liquidation To Continue By Andrew Johnson Jr Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES CHICAGO (Dow Jones)--Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade are expected start Thursday's day session on the defensive, plunging on the continuation of speculative fund long liquidation pressure. Analysts expect corn to open 20 cents lower. In overnight electronic trading, May corn was 19 1/4 cents lower at $5.08, July corn was 20 cents lower at $5.19 1/4, and December corn was 20 cents lower at $5.21 1/4....

Jan 07, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.comby Neal WeintraubFMNN Trading and Futures Correspondent FMNN EXCLUSIVE - released to Reuters, AP, Bloomberg for at-will pick upFreeMarketNews.Com, Jan. 7, 2005 - There have been plenty of reports that the Chicago Board of Trade is readying a public offering. Now an apparently sizeable layoff of senior staffers in December – possibly with more to come - leaves little doubt the CBOT is probably going public sooner rather than later. A CBOT official declined comment when contacted - and referred another official who did not return calls. However sources familiar with the proceedings said that the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Back when federal lawmakers legally could be paid for speaking to outside groups, John Kerry collected more than $120,000 in fees from interests as diverse as big oil, tobacco, the liquor lobby and unions, records show. Between 1985 and 1990, Kerry's first five years in the Senate from Massachusetts, he pocketed annual amounts slightly under the limits for speaking fees set by Congress. Unlike many colleagues, he donated a speaking fee to charity only once, according to annual financial disclosure reports reviewed by The Associated Press. One of the companies to pay Kerry $1,000 for a speech...