MarketAxess announced record-breaking trading volumes for February 2024. The electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities reported a total credit average daily volume (ADV) of $15.2 billion, an uptick of 5.1% from the previous year, driven by strong performance across several key sectors.

MarketAxess Hits Record Trading Volumes in February 2024

Record US high-grade ADV of $7.7 billion, an improvement of 14.6% year-over-year (YoY). In emerging markets, ADV escalated 12.5% to $3.6 billion. Eurobonds ADV climbed 9.1% to $2.0 billion. Municipal bonds ADV increased 8.0% YoY to $434 million.

Despite the overall positive results, US high-yield ADV declined 37.1% to $1.4 billion, attributed to lower credit spread volatility and a greater focus on new issue calendars by long-only clients.

"Strong credit volumes quarter-to-date across several of our growth cylinders have more than offset significantly lower levels of US high-yield trading activity on our platform impacted by continued low levels of credit spread volatility ,” said Chris Concannon, the CEO of MarketAxess.

In addition, the company's Open Trading marketplace, widely regarded as the preferred all-to-all trading solution in global credit markets, accounted for 34% of total credit trading volume, a drop from 36% in the prior year.

Record Trading Volumes Drive Strong 2023 Performance

In late January, MarketAxess reported solid financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2023, driven by higher trading volumes across multiple products and regions.

In the fourth quarter, total revenues rose 10.9% year-over-year to $197.2 million, boosted by the acquisition of Pragma and favorable foreign currency fluctuations. Additionally, net income elevated 18% to $69.6 million, while diluted earnings per share (EPS) grew 16.5% to $1.84.

For the full year 2023, MarketAxess posted an incline of 5% year-over-year in total revenues to $753 million. Net income showed a moderate increase of 3% to $258 million, and diluted EPS grew 3% to $6.85, with results visibly better than the third quarter of 2023.

In late February 2024, the company announced a key executive appointment, naming Ilene Fiszel Bieler as its new Chief Financial Officer, effective around May 2024. Bieler, who will replace Christopher Gerosa, brings extensive experience from her tenures at State Street Global Markets and Barclays, among others.