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Forces Affecting Global Supply and Demand for Food Commodities Are Focus as FCStone Announces Agenda, Speaker Lineup for 2009 Annual Outlook Conference

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 07:30 CDT

Thought-leaders to share insight on global impacts on dairy, grain and energy commodities

Dennis Gartman, Founder of Gartman Letter, to Keynote Event

Contrarian Climatologist Drew Lerner is Featured Speaker

CHICAGO, April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forces affecting global supply and demand for food and energy commodities take center stage as commodity risk-management consulting firm FCStone (Nasdaq: FCSX) today announced the agenda, speaker lineup, and theme for the annual FCStone/Downes-O'Neill Outlook Conference, June 17-18 in Chicago.

The theme for the sixth annual conference is "Now More Than Ever," signifying the importance of understanding the forces that are impacting the supply and demand for commodities during this time of unprecedented economic uncertainty. The annual gathering is designed to help producers, processors, and end users of food commodities foresee global supply and demand issues and, in the process, help them prepare for and protect against the risks of price fluctuations.

"This is a critical time for everyone exposed to the risk of commodity price fluctuations to have as thorough an understanding as possible of how those risks may affect their businesses and their bottom lines," said Tom Gaughan, Vice President of the Food Services Division of FCStone. "The Outlook Conference is designed to offer attendees access to key industry thought-leaders and experts who can share their perspective on current trends and future developments that are likely to affect the supply and demand for commodities across the globe."

The event's keynote speaker is Dennis Gartman, author of the influential Gartman Letter, a widely circulated newsletter that is read by the nation's leading banks, brokerage firms, mutual funds, hedge funds, energy trading companies, and grain trading firms. Gartman has been providing commodity commentary on a continuous basis since 1987 and has taught courses on capital markets creation and derivatives for banks, brokerage firms, governments and central banks throughout his career.

Climatologist Drew Lerner, president and founder and senior agricultural meteorologist of World Weather, Inc., an international weather-forecasting firm located in the Kansas City area, will return as a presenter for the third consecutive year. In his past appearances, Lerner has provided attendees with long-range forecasts for growing seasons, Atlantic hurricane activity, and winter weather, and has taken a contrarian view of global warming that emphasizes the influence of solar radiation, rather than anthropogenic activities, on climate change.

Dr. Douglas Southgate, Ohio State University agricultural economist and co-author of The World Food Economy, will speak on long-term trends in the demand, supply, and prices in the global food economy and will address what he considers to be the need for a new "Green Revolution" in agricultural technology to ensure adequate future food supplies across the globe.

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Jim Webster, author of the Webster Agricultural Letter, on the legislative outlook for agribusiness
• Peter Ullrich, president and CEO of Ullrich Analytics, on computerized technical analysis and price forecasts
• David Hightower, principal and founder of the Hightower Report on U.S. and world currencies
• Michael Caughlan, vice president, McKeaney & Flavell, on cocoa
• Kevin Combs, vice president, McKeaney & Flavell, on corn sweeteners
• Bill Brooks, dairy economist, FCStone, on the dairy market
• Ken Bailey, PhD, Professor of agricultural economics at Penn State University and FCStone consultant, on global dairy markets
• Ryan Turner, consultant and meat and livestock expert, FCStone, on meats and livestock
• Dave Smoldt, vice president of operations, FCStone, on grains and oilseeds
• James Burr, vice president of energy, FCStone, on energy products
• Mario Silveira, consultant, FCStone Brazil, on the sugar market

The Outlook Conference will be held at the Deloitte & Touche Building in Chicago.

For more information on the conference, and updates on confirmed speakers and the conference agenda, please visit http://edairy.fcstone.com/outlook/outlook.asp. Persons interested in attending the event can contact Kelly Czachor at kelly.czachor@fcstone.com or (312) 456-3624.

About FCStone Group, Inc.

FCStone Group, Inc., along with its affiliates, is an integrated commodity risk management company providing risk management consulting and transaction execution services to commercial commodity intermediaries, end-users and producers. The firm assists primarily middle market customers in optimizing their profit margins and mitigating exposure to commodity price risk. In addition to risk management consulting services, FCStone, LLC, operates one of the leading independent clearing and execution platforms for exchange-traded futures and options contracts. FCStone Group, Inc., serves more than 8,000 customers and in the 12 months ended February 28, 2009, executed 86.8 million derivative contracts in the exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets. The FCStone Group companies work in all the major commodity areas including agriculture, energy, renewable fuels, foods, forestry, cotton and textile, dairy and currency exchange. Headquartered in the Midwest, it has offices located throughout the world and is a clearing member of all major North American Futures exchanges. FCStone Group, Inc., trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "FCSX."

SOURCE FCStone Group, Inc.

Source: PR Newswire

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