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"We are pleased to join with Standard & Poor's for the second time this year to announce the listing of a new futures contract on an S&P index," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "Recently, we launched SPCTR futures on two sectors of the S&P 500®. With the launch of S&P SmallCap 600 futures, we will offer a greater diversity of choices for index trading."
"S&P SmallCap 600 futures will offer a myriad of investment opportunities, allowing investors to increase their small-cap exposure, initiate hedges or spread small-cap issues against mid-caps or large caps in order to profit from relative price valuation," said CME President and CEO Jim McNulty. "Customers of CME can trade these strategies utilizing the S&P 500 and S&P MidCap 400 along with these new S&P SmallCap 600 futures."
Paul Aaronson, Executive Managing Director, Standard & Poor's, said, "CME has proven itself over the past 20 years as the premier exchange for the listing and trading of Standard & Poor's derivative index products, starting with S&P 500 Index futures contract in 1982. We are pleased to add the S&P SmallCap 600 Index futures as yet another milestone in the expansion of Standard & Poor's relationship with CME."
"We are delighted to see CME offer investors a new way to manage exposure to small caps using the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. We have seen an increase in investor demand for products tracking the S&P SmallCap 600 as the index continues to gain popularity among institutional investors, both as a benchmark and as an investable and tradable index," said Robert Shakotko, Managing Director at Standard & Poor's. "The S&P SmallCap 600 is quickly becoming the industry standard with the major Wall Street research desks pointing to the benefits of Standard & Poor's multivariable methodology, which includes viability and liquidity criteria for index inclusion."
Trading will occur on CME's GLOBEX® electronic trading platform and regular trading hours will be from 3:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday (5:30 p.m. on Sundays and holidays) until 3:15 p.m. the following day. (All times are Central time.)
CME S&P SmallCap 600 futures will be sized at $200 times the index price (approximately $37,000 at recent index levels) and the minimum price fluctuation will be 0.05 index points, equivalent to $10 per contract. Contract months to be listed are those in the March quarterly cycle.
The S&P SmallCap 600 Index consists of 600 U.S. stocks chosen for market size, liquidity (bid-asked spread, ownership, share turnover and number of no-trade days), viability and industry group representation. The index is market-value weighted (stock price times the number of shares outstanding), with each stock's weight in the index proportionate to its market value.
CME has been a leader in stock index futures trading since it began offering these products in 1982, and currently has a 95 percent market share in U.S. listed stock index futures. CME, together with Standard & Poor's, launched the first successful stock index futures contract 20 years ago - on the benchmark S&P 500 Stock Price Index. In addition, CME trades futures and, in most instances, options on the following S&P indexes: S&P MidCap 400ä ; S&P/BARRA Growthä and Valueä ; and S&P Financial and Technology SPCTRä futures. E-miniä S&P 500 futures, launched in 1997, are the fastest-growing product in CME's 104-year history, reaching record volume of nearly one million contracts on Oct. 9. E-mini S&P MidCap 400 futures were launched in January 2002.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (www.cme.com) is the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures. As an international marketplace, CME brings together buyers and sellers on its trading floors and virtually around the clock on its GLOBEX electronic trading platform. CME offers futures contracts and options on futures primarily in four product areas: interest rates, stock indexes, foreign exchange and commodities. The exchange moves about $1.7 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.7 billion in collateral deposits. CME is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.
Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, provides independent financial information, analytical services and credit ratings to the world's financial markets. Among the company's many products are the S&P Global 1200, the world's first real-time, investable global equity index, the S&P 500, the premier U.S. portfolio index, and credit ratings on more than 220,000 securities and funds worldwide. With more than 5,000 employees located in 18 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the global financial infrastructure.
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. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
