(Updates with IntercontinentalExchange volume)
CME Group Inc. (CME) closed 2009 year strongly, improving upon
November's turnaround to growth with a 13% daily volume increase in
December from a year ago, although its performance again fell short
of smaller rival IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE).
ICE has been picking up market share in recent months, gaining
as trading slowed at CME and then outpacing CME's growth since
CME's turnaround.
CME struggled through most of 2009 with falling volume but the
company saw its first year-to-year gains in more than a year in
November. As a result, average daily contracts in the fourth
quarter fell just 1%, by far the best performance of 2009 for CME.
For the quarter, daily volume for CME's core interest-rate products
jumped 18%.
As the world's largest derivatives exchange operator, CME
handled 9.2 million contracts per day last month, up 13% from a
year earlier. Interest-rate volume jumped 42%, with eurodollars
futures volume up 38% and Treasurys futures volume surging 64%.
However, equities was the only decliner in volume, falling 27%.
CME trading continued to migrate to electronic trading from open
outcry, which was down 6%.
Separately, average daily volume at energy-focused ICE rose 17%
in December to 988,212 contracts, as the fourth-quarter's volume
was up 13% from a year earlier. ICE's index futures again had the
greatest volume gains of any product line, more than doubling. And
the same two lines declined in December that fell the month before:
Russell 2000 mini futures and options and a grouping of other
contracts that includes options on foreign-exchange futures and
options on index futures, excluding Russell 2000 mini options.
Looking at the full year, ICE said its 2009 volume in both
futures and over-the-counter energy commissions hit new highs,
adding that each of ICE's futures exchanges established annual
volume records during the year.
CME shares closed Monday at $342.41, while ICE finished at
$112.87. Neither traded premarket.
-By Joan E. Solsman, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2291;
joan.solsman@dowjones.com