DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CME Group Inc.'s (CME) daily trading volume jumped 15% in
December and also climbed in the fourth quarter, the exchange
operator said, continuing a trend of growth.
The world's biggest futures exchange operator has seen traders
return to its markets in recent quarters as the financial crisis
has receded further into the past. In October, CME said its
third-quarter profit rose 21%, helped by robust trade in
derivatives contracts linked to commodities, interest rates and
indexes.
In December, daily volume averaged 10.5 million contracts, with
83% of the month's total of 232 million being traded
electronically. Last month's level was down from November's 14.2
million, the highest since May's "flash crash." For the quarter,
growth was 17% on year, to 12 million contracts daily.
CME said interest-rate futures volume--its biggest product by
contract volume--surged 29% from a year earlier in December to 5
million contracts a day.
Energy and metals contract volume each dipped 1% while
equity-index volume dropped 4%. But foreign-exchange contracts
volume increased 10% and commodities volume was up 37%.
Shares of CME closed Monday at $316.44 and were inactive
premarket. The stock has declined 7.6% in the past year after
surging three quarters in 2009.
-By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240;
matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com