CME Group, a futures exchange operator, has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2018, where the Chicago-based firm managed to achieve an uptick in revenues for both time periods.
Starting off first with the final quarter of 2018, the company managed to achieve total revenues of $1.2 billion. When measured against the same quarter in 2017, this is up by 37.4 percent from $900 million.
Contributing to total revenues is revenue from clearing and transaction fees, which was $1.03 billion in the final quarter of last year. This is up by around 36.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017, which had revenue of $758.4 million.
The average daily volume (ADV) for the fourth quarter of 2018 was 20.8 million contracts. This represents an increase of 31 percent year-on-year. It is also the second highest quarterly AVD ever reached by CME Group.
For trading volumes outside of the United States, ADV was up by 22 percent in the fourth quarter, hitting 4.8 million contracts. According to the statement, this was driven by a strong performance in equity and interest rates products.
The quarterly ADV for foreign exchange (Forex ) trading was $942,000 in Q4 of 2018. However, this is actually the lowest ADV reported for CME Group for the whole of 2018, and only slightly up by $1,000 year-on-year.
Terry Duffy
Source: CME Group Inc
Commenting on the results, CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said: "During the fourth quarter, elevated volatility and increased customer demand for our diverse Risk Management products resulted in strong trading volumes, exceeding 20 million contracts per day.”
CME Group Achieves Solid Full-Year Revenues
Taking a look at the full year, total revenues for 2018 were $4.3 billion, up by 18.2 percent from $3.6 billion in 2017. For the same period, operating income was $2.6 billion, and net income was $2.0 billion
“We set annual average daily volume records in four of our six asset classes as well as in total options and demonstrated solid expense control during 2018. In November, we completed the NEX acquisition, which positions us to launch innovative new products to an expanding global customer base across futures, options, cash and OTC markets,” Duffy continued.
“Looking ahead to 2019, we're extremely focused on the continued integration of these two great companies, and expect to unlock additional value for our customers and shareholders," he added.
