This morning, LeapRate reported the breaking news that CME Europe has been granted authorization by the European Commission to act as a central counterparty as part of the new trade reporting rules within the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation, however just as this occurred, CME Group’s main operation on the other side of the atlantic has announced that trading volume in July 2014 volume averaged 12.2 million contracts per day, up 13 percent from July 2013.
Total volume for July 2014 was more than 269 million contracts, of which 86 percent was traded electronically. CME Group open interest stands at 101 million contracts at the end of July, up 10 percent from the end of June 2014 and 20 percent year-to-date, standing itself out as an asset class which is still producing buoyant volumes contrary to what has been experienced industry-wide for most of this year.
Looking at this on a month to month basis, CME Group’s average daily volume of 12.2 million contracts for July is down from 12.7 million per day in June this year, itself a 2% decline from May’s results.
For CME Group, a glimmer of hope began to emerge record on June 12 this year, a day in which trading volumes for British pound (GBPUSD) futures contracts set a record for the company. British pound futures volume reached 337,633 contracts, compared to the previous record back in May 2010, of 307,280 contracts, despite an onslaught from competition which has increased recently.
CME Group interest rate volume averaged 6.2 million contracts per day in July 2014, up 25 percent compared with July 2013. Eurodollar futures volume averaged 2.6 million contracts per day, up 40 percent from the same period a year ago. Eurodollar options volume averaged 812,000 contracts per day, up 38 percent from July last year. Treasury futures volume averaged 2.3 million contracts per day, up 15 percent compared with July 2013. Treasury options volume averaged 500,000 contracts per day, down 5 percent from the same period last year. Overall CME Group interest rate open interest increased 14 percent from the end of June 2014 to 49 million contracts.
CME Group equity index volume in July 2014 averaged 2.4 million contracts per day, up 19 percent from the same period a year ago. CME Group foreign exchange (FX) volume averaged 583,000 contracts per day, down 28 percent from July 2013. The average daily notional value of FX contracts traded in July was $71 billion. In June, concurrent with LeapRate’s prediction, CME processed 765,000 FX contracts per day, however with today’s result, it is clear that this has not been sustained into July.
CME Group agricultural commodities volume averaged 1.1 million contracts per day in July 2014, up 9 percent compared with the prior-year period, and open interest was up 11 percent from the end of June 2014. CME Group metals volume in July 2014 averaged 319,000 contracts per day, down 15 percent from July 2013. CME Group energy volume averaged 1.6 million contracts per day in July 2014, down 4 percent compared with the prior July.
In July 2014, CME Group cleared $145 billion in average daily notional value of over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate swaps. During the month, OTC interest rate swap open interest increased 19 percent from the end of June to $17.2 trillion, which represents 53 percent of clients’ total cleared OTC interest rate swap open interest. Average daily trade count for the month was 1,167.
