World’s largest futures Exchange operator CME Group Inc has just released its Q2 2018 aggregated volumes, sharing its trading statistics across key business segments. The latest figures reflect a notable drop over the first quarter in terms of average daily volumes, having been subject to a wide range of factors that influenced the market last quarter.
In terms of its overall volume for Q2 2018, CME Group reported an average of 18.4 million contracts per day, which was indicative of a fall of 17 percent quarter-over-quarter from 22.2 million contracts per day in the Jan-March quarter.
Like other exchange operators, CME booked gains in the first quarter after global equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities markets were roiled by an increase in Volatility in February that extended into March.
Looking at a yearly timetable as a means of comparison, Q2 2018 proved to more active at CME Group across the board, which corresponded to year-over-year growth of 12 percent when weighed against the metrics of Q2 2017.
This growth was fueled by a strong performance in interest rates (12.0 percent year-over-year growth), and metals volumes, which averaged 674,000 contracts per day, up 27 percent from Q2 2017.
CME, which owns the Chicago Board of Trade, said average daily foreign exchange volumes also rose 12 percent on a year-over-year basis, coming in at 1.0 million contracts per day in Q2 2018. Quarter-over-quarter, Q2 2018 figures were down 9 percent compared to a record 1.1 million contracts per day in first-quarter 2018.
CME has been looking to develop its cryptocurrency and non-trading related businesses such as its market data and information services. Most recently, it announced plans to provide a real-time Ethereum price listing.
Earlier in May, the CME Group made headlines after the exchange operator reached a landmark deal to acquire London-based fintech firm NEX in a transaction valued at £3.80 billion ($5.35 billion).
