FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:    Kelly Sherman                              
             Downes-O’Neill        
             Kelly.Sherman@DownesOneill.com
             (312) 456-3618

DOWNES-O’NEILL™/EDAIRY OUTLOOK CONFERENCE TO EXAMINE RISING MILK PRICES, COSTS OF INPUTS AND FUELS

First All-Green Conference Also Will Present Speakers on World Weather Outlook, Chinese Food Imports and Exports, and Direction of Global Economy


Chicago, April 21, 2008 –   Downes-O’Neill, a division of FCStone, LLC, today announced the lineup of speakers for its 5th Annual Outlook Conference.  The Outlook Conference is a leading gathering for dairy-industry executives, analysts, traders, and producers that also attracts participants with price risk exposure in other commodities, including grains and fuels.

The keynote speaker for this year’s conference is Todd Buchholz, a former director of economic policy at the White House and a managing director of the $15 billion Tiger hedge fund.  Buchholz, who has authored numerous books on the economy, including Market Shock: 9 Economic and Social Upheavals that Will Shake our Financial Future and the bestseller Dead Economists, will present his viewpoint of the direction of the global economy in 2008 and beyond.

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The conference, which will be held June 18 and 19 in Chicago, also will feature Siva Yam, the president of the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce, who will discuss the Chinese economy and trends in that nation’s food import and export situation.

Climatologist Drew Lerner, who also addressed last year’s conference – and predicted this year’s harsh winter in the U.S. – will be back to offer his predictions for global weather patterns in the remainder of 2008 and beyond.  

Downes-O’Neill/FCStone’s own Bill Brooks will offer his perspective on the changing fundamentals of the dairy market and what they will mean for prices at the wholesale and retail level.  Ken Bailey, Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics at Penn State University and a consultant to Downes-O’Neill/FCStone, also will address the dairy market outlook, and will discuss the use of econometric models to forecast commodity prices.

Other speakers will include David Hightower, editor of the Hightower Report newsletter, on U.S. and world currencies; Julian Viso, Vice President of Latin American Operations for FCStone, LLC, on Latin America’s economy and agriculture sector; Eric Bowles, Senior Vice President of FCStone Trading on OTC swap derivatives; Mike Knobbe,

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President, carbon credits, of FCStone Carbon, LLC; technical analyst Peter Ullrich; Jim Webster, publisher of the Webster Agricultural Letter, on the legislative outlook; Tripp
Dunman, Director of the fuel surcharge program for FCStone, LLC on the energy market outlook and trading strategies; and David Smoldt, FCStone Vice President and risk-management consultant, on the outlook for U.S. grains.  

The 2008 Outlook Conference will be the first held by Downes-O’Neill to be an “all-green” conference.   It will be held at the Deloitte Building, 111 S. Wacker in Chicago, the first multiple-tenant office building anywhere to receive a “Gold” rating from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program administered by the U.S. Green Building Council.  Attendees will be offered the opportunity by Downes-O’Neill/FCStone to offset their share of carbon emissions

The Platinum sponsor for this year’s conference is Schreiber Foods, and the Gold sponsor is Dairy Farmers of America (DFA.)  

Persons interested in attending this conference can contact Downes-O’Neill/FCStone’s Kelly Czachor at kelly.czachor@fcstone.com or 312-456-3624.

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About Downes-O’Neill

Downes-O’Neill, a division of FCStone, LLC, trades more dairy futures and options than any other brokerage group.  Downes-O’Neill’s brokers are registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and are members of the National Futures Association (NFA.)  

Downes-O’Neill’s eDairy division provides the dairy industry with accurate, timely and relevant information on dairy futures and options and dairy price-risk management.

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 7,500 customers and in the 12 months ended February 29, 2008, executed 86.3 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."