Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Extends Trading Hours on GLOBEX®
-- Effective May 30, 2004, CME will eliminate the GLOBEX trading break that occurs between 10:30 a.m. Central Daylight Time (15:30 Greenwich Mean Time) and 5:30 p.m. CDT (22:30 GMT) on many of the observed U.S. holidays. The exceptions to this new procedure will be Christmas, New Year's Day and Good Friday, where current trading schedules will be maintained.
-- Also, effective May 30, 2004, the Sunday opening time for GLOBEX will be adjusted from 5:30 p.m. CDT (22:30 GMT) to 5:00 p.m. CDT (22:00 GMT) for operational consistency with the market opening Monday through Thursday. Please note that the Sunday pre-opening session will begin at 4:15 p.m. CDT (21:15 GMT).
-- Additionally, effective May 9, 2004, the trading dates for Interest Rate (IR) and Foreign Exchange (FX) options will be adjusted to coincide with the futures trade date. The options schedule will change to begin a new trade date at 5:00 p.m. CDT (22:00 GMT) as it is for futures, to facilitate hedge transactions in futures and options within the same clearing cycle.
Volume on GLOBEX averaged a monthly record of 1.6 million contracts per day in April 2004, up 62 percent compared to the same period last year. During April, Eurodollar futures on GLOBEX volume jumped to a daily average of 386,000 contracts, up more than 10 times the 35,000 per day in April 2003 and an increase of 80 percent from March 2004.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. ( www.cme.com ) is the largest futures exchange in the United States. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and GLOBEX® electronic trading platform. CME offers futures and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moved about $1.5 billion per day in settlement payments in the first quarter of 2004 and managed $38.1 billion in collateral deposits at March 31, 2004. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME), which is part of the Russell 1000® Index.
Statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward- looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, which can be obtained at its Web site at www.sec.gov . CME undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward- looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME, the globe logo and GLOBEX are registered trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Further information about CME and its products is available on the CME Web site at www.cme.com .
SOURCE Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.
-0- 05/06/2004
/NOTE TO EDITORS: First Bulleted Item Contains Correction on Holiday
Observance from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day./
/CONTACT: Media, Anita S. Liskey, +1-312-466-4613, or Allan L.
Schoenberg, +1-312-930-8189, news@cme.com , or Investor, John Peschier,
+1-312-930-8491, all of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc./
/Web site: http://www.cme.com /
(CME)
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Chicago Mercantile Exchange's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.