7 U.S.C. § 20: Market reports

The Commission may conduct regular investigations of the markets for goods, articles, services, rights, and interests which are the subject of futures contracts, and furnish reports of the findings of these investigations to the public on a regular basis. These market reports shall, where appropriate, include information on the supply, demand, prices, and other conditions in the United States and other countries with respect to such goods, articles, services, rights, interests, and information respecting the futures markets. The Commission shall cooperate with the Department of Agriculture and any other Department or Federal agency which makes market investigations to avoid unnecessary duplication of information-gathering activities. The Department of Agriculture and any other Department or Federal agency which has market information sought by the Commission shall furnish it to the Commission upon the request of any authorized employee of the Commission. The Commission shall abide by any rules of confidentiality applying to such information. The Commission shall not disclose in such reports data and information which would separately disclose the business transactions or market positions of any person and trade secrets or names of customers except as provided in section 12 of this title . This section shall not apply to investigations involving any security underlying a security futures product. whether the reaction of the live cattle futures market to the results of the milk production termination program in March 1986, conducted under section 201(d)(3) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 ( 7 U.S.C. 1446(d)(3) ), was based on and accurately reflected the then prevailing conditions of supply and demand; the price relationship between feeder cattle and fed cattle; the price discovery process with respect to live cattle; and price competition within the cattle industry; the effect of the use of packer contracts, as a means of obtaining slaughter cattle, on the increase in short hedging in contracts for the future delivery of live cattle and the effect of this increase in short hedging on prices in the futures and cash markets; the effect on the ability of the cash markets to accurately reflect prevailing conditions of supply and demand if packer contracts become the prevalent method of marketing fed cattle; whether the present delivery system for contracts for the future delivery of live cattle creates any bias (either upward or downward) in the cash price for cattle; whether the present delivery system for contracts for the future delivery of live cattle creates price volatility during the delivery month; and whether there are advantages or disadvantages to a cash settlement system in lieu of the present delivery system in the case of contracts for the future delivery of live cattle. Not later than January 15, 1987 , the Comptroller General shall submit a preliminary report on the results of the study required under subsection (a) to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act [ Nov. 10, 1986 ], the Comptroller General shall submit to such committees a detailed final report of the results of the study required under subsection (a).”