CME Group (CME) Reports Strong May Volumes, Shares Rise

Shares of CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) gained 2.5% in the last trading session as it reported solid volumes for May 2019. Average daily volumes (“ADV”) increased 19% year over year to 23.9 million contracts per day on higher volumes across four product lines. Options volume of 5 million increased 40% and marked the second-highest monthly ADV.

Equity index volume of 4.2 million contracts per day surged 61%. Agricultural volume of 1.9 million contracts per day witnessed an increase of 31% year over year while interest rate volume of 13.8 million contracts per day rose 19%.

However, Energy volume of 2.5 million contracts decreased 6% while Metals volume of 0.6 million contracts per day declined 14%. Foreign exchange volume of 0.8 million declined 25%.

CME Group boasts 90% market share of the global futures trading and clearing services. Given its sturdy market position with diverse derivative product lines and global reach, growth momentum in volumes should continue. Also, increasing electronic trading volume adds scalability and hence leverage to CME Group’s operating model. Expansion of futures products in emerging markets, non-transaction related opportunities and OTC offerings should continue to contribute modestly to revenue growth. Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) futures exchange have rallied 21.4% quarter to date, outperforming the industry's increase of 17.5%.

Recently, other securities exchanges, namely Nasdaq Group Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ) , MarketAxess Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ:MKTX) and Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (NYSE:CBOE) also posted their respective monthly volumes.

Nasdaq’s U.S. equity options volume increased 10% year over year to 154 million contracts, European options and futures volume increased 14.5% year over year to 8.7 million contracts. MarketAxess reported trading volume of $174 billion for May. Total volume included $89.3 billion in U.S. high-grade volume, $80.6 billion in other credit volume and $4.1 billion in liquid products volume. Cboe Global reported solid average daily volume for May 2019 as total ADV of 8.5 million contracts increased 21.6% year over year.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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