CHICAGO, Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will conduct its 2025 annual meeting of shareholders at 10:00 a.m. Central Time on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Additional information will be provided in the company's proxy statement.

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CHICAGO, Dec. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that as of November 29, more than 3 billion Micro E-mini Equity Index futures traded across all four indices.

"With over three billion of these contracts traded in less than five years, our Micro E-mini Equity Index futures continue to establish themselves among the most actively traded and deeply liquid index products," said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equities, FX and Alternative Products at CME Group. "As investors continue to navigate ongoing market uncertainty, index choice is as important as ever. Our breadth of products across every major U.S. index allow clients of all sizes to more nimbly scale index exposure up or down."

CHICAGO, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will launch a 1-Ounce Gold (1OZ) futures contract on January 13, 2025, pending regulatory review.

"Gold has always been a popular investment, but retail interest has surged in recent years as more market participants look to diversify their portfolios," said Jin Hennig, Managing Director and Global Head of Metals at CME Group. "1-Ounce Gold futures will broaden opportunities for a wider range of retail traders, providing even more flexibility to access the liquidity and efficiencies that our futures provide."

CHICAGO, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced that its Board of Directors approved two initiatives to return capital to shareholders.

The Board declared the company's 2024 annual variable dividend, amounting to $5.80 per share. The dividend is payable January 16, 2025, to shareholders of record on December 27, 2024, and totals approximately $2.1 billion.

In addition, the Board authorized a share repurchase program of up to $3 billion of CME Group Class A common stock, subject to market conditions. 

CHICAGO and LONDON, Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced it will provide CME Term €STR Reference Rates to meet client demand for a term rate anchored in €STR markets.

Published in beta today, the rates are based on CME Group's liquid €STR futures and OTC swap market data. They are published in 1-month, 3-month, 6-month and 12-month tenors.

"We are introducing €STR term rates in response to client demand for a more robust and transparent term rate for the growing €STR ecosystem," said Max Ruscher, Head of Benchmark Services, CME Group. "Building on the increasing liquidity in our €STR futures market and OTC trade data, our term rate is based on comprehensive derivatives transactions data that will help clients build lending and fixed income products."

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmer sentiment jumped again in November, with the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer climbing 30 points to a reading of 145. This marked the highest level of farmer optimism since May 2021, driven by considerable gains in both the Current Conditions and Future Expectations indices. The Future Expectations Index saw the largest jump, rising 37 points to 161, while the Current Conditions Index increased 18 points to 113.

The November sentiment boost reflects growing optimism about a more favorable regulatory and tax environment for agriculture following the U.S. election. This month's survey was conducted from Nov. 11-15, 2024.

CHICAGO, Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today reported its November 2024 market statistics reached the highest November average daily volume (ADV) of a record 30.2 million contracts, up 7% from November 2023. Market statistics are available in greater detail at https://cmegroupinc.gcs-web.com/monthly-volume.

CHICAGO, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that it successfully converted approximately 42 trillion pesos (the equivalent of $2 trillion) in outstanding notional open interest from 28-day TIIE swaps to corresponding F-TIIE overnight index swaps (OIS) on November 22.

In alignment with global best practices, the new F-TIIE benchmark moves the calculation of Banco de Mexico's benchmark rate from a survey-based methodology to one based on overnight repo transactions. 

CHICAGO, Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that Henry Hub Natural Gas options reached a single day volume record of 561,379 contracts on November 21, surpassing the previous record of 506,500 contracts traded on November 14, 2018.

"The U.S. is entering the winter season while production is falling, creating price volatility and risk that needs to be managed in natural gas markets," said Peter Keavey, Global Head of Energy and Environmental Products at CME Group. "Market participants continue to flock to the most liquid and efficient on-screen options market to manage their Henry Hub exposure. Within total options volume, a record 395,952 contracts traded electronically on Thursday. Of that, more than half of the volume was transacted on CME Direct, an all-time record, reflecting growing demand for our market-leading front-end solution."

CHICAGO, Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced that its suite of Adjusted Interest Rate (AIR) Total Return futures reached an open interest (OI) record of 710,358 contracts (equivalent to $224 billion notional) on November 20.

In addition, AIR Total Return futures average daily volume (ADV) stands at a record 11,600 contracts for 2024, up 152% year-over-year.

"More institutional investors are turning to our AIR Total Return futures to access U.S. index returns while managing interest rate, balance sheet and counterparty risks," said Paul Woolman, Global Head of Equity Products at CME Group. "These products provide a cost-effective alternative to OTC total return swaps and allow clients to better manage their equity financing risk by trading calendar spreads along the entire equity financing curve."