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CME Group's (CME) Average Daily Volume Decreases in February

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Shares of CME Group Inc. (CME - Free Report) lost 2.3% after it reported average daily volume (ADV) for Feb 2017, on Mar 2. ADV of 18.4 million contracts per day dipped 1% year over year. Of this, Options volume inched up 9% year over year and averaged 3.8 million contracts per day, while electronic options surged 17% year over year and averaged 2.2 million contracts per day. The company witnessed declines in three of its six product lines.

Metals volume of 0.5 million contracts per day increased 7%, whereas Energy volume of 2.5 million contracts declined 9%. Interest rate volume of 10.6 million contracts per day improved 9%, Equity index volume of 2.5 million decreased 17%, and Foreign exchange volume plunged 20% to nearly 0.7 million. Agricultural volume of about 1.5 million contracts per day increased 12% year over year.

Recently, securities exchanges CBOE Holdings Inc. (CBOE - Free Report) , Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE - Free Report) and MarketAxess Holdings Ltd. (MKTX - Free Report) also posted their February volumes. CBOE Holdings’ ADV increased 16% to 5.4 million contracts per day, whereas Intercontinental Exchange witnessed a 3% decrease in ADV to 58 million contracts. MarketAxess’ monthly trading volume for Feb 2017 was $117.8 billion.

Shares of CME Group have modestly outperformed the Zacks categorized Securities Exchanges industry’s increase, year to date. While CME Group gained 7.7%, the Securities Exchanges industry registered an increase of 7.5%.

CME Group’s strong fundamentals help it in improving operating leverage (a catalyst to fuel growth in ADV). This enables CME Group to maintain its strong foothold in the market where it operates. In fact, the insurer holds about 90% market share of the global futures trading and clearing services. Expansion of futures products in emerging markets, non-transaction related opportunities and OTC offerings should continue to contribute modestly to top-line growth in the coming years. Efforts to expand and cross-sell through strategic alliances, acquisitions, new product initiatives and global presence should also drive growth.

Zacks Rank

CBOE Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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