By Adriano Marchese


Ceres Global has been ordered to pay a $3 million civil penalty to settle charges with a U.S. regulator over attempts to manipulate the price of oat futures contracts.

On Monday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order against Minnesota-based Ceres Global which was settled simultaneously, with the Toronto-listed stock rising 6.7% to 2.40 Canadian dollars ($1.75).

The order stated that Ceres Global attempted to manipulate the price of oats futures contracts on two occasions, in July 2016 and in March 2017.

According to the order, senior personnel at Ceres facilitated the building of large long positions at or close to the spot month speculative limits, the CFTC said. Ceres held those long positions into the delivery period, and took delivery of the oats, intending both to boost the price of oat futures in those contracts and to obtain higher-quality oats at lower delivery prices, it said.

Ceres said that it has now resolved the matter with the CFTC.

Ceres said that the $3 million penalty is consistent with the amount accrued as a legal settlement reserve in the corporation's financial statements for fiscal 2023.

The company doesn't anticipate any other charges or fines arising from the corresponding investigation by the Department of Justice.


Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-23-23 1410ET