Opinion ID: 767372
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Oprah Crash

Text: 8 Following the April 16, 1996, broadcast of the Dangerous Food program, the fed cattle market in the Texas Panhandle dropped drastically. In the week before the show aired, finished cattle sold for approximately $61.90 per hundred weight. After the show, the price of finished cattle dropped as low as the mid-50's; the volume of sales also went down. The cattlemen assert that the depression continued for approximately eleven weeks. 9 The depression in cattle prices reverberated in national fed cattle markets as well. W. Winfred Moore, II, a commodities trader on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, reported the impact that the Dangerous Food show had on the live cattle futures market. He recalled the stir the show created in the trading pit, both before and after broadcast. Moore explained that the fear inspired by the show caused futures prices to decline by $1.50 per hundred weight -- the limit-down for the market. The market reached the limit-down within an hour of the Oprah Winfrey Show's 9:00 a.m. broadcast, and the Mercantile Exchange closed the live cattle market for the day. 10 Cash fed cattle markets suffered a similar fate. Dr. Wayne D. Purcell, an expert in agricultural economics and livestock marketing, concluded that a significant and rather dramatic shock impacted the cash fed cattle market during [the week of] April 16, 1996. Dr. Purcell went on to testify that the aftereffect of this shock was felt in the cash market through July 1996 and perhaps into the fall of 1996.