CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced a record in daily trading volume for its benchmark Henry Hub Natural Gas futures contract. These contracts are listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX.
Henry Hub Natural Gas trading volumes surged yesterday to 824,316 contracts, a 48 percent increase over the previous record of 557,179 set on January 17, 2012, and a 170 percent increase over the average daily volume of 305,017 contracts in 2011.
"Our Henry Hub futures contract is the leading benchmark for the North American natural gas market, which accounts for almost a quarter of energy in the U.S.," said Gary Morsches, Managing Director, Global Energy at CME Group. "It's the second most-actively traded futures contract in the world based on a physical commodity and is a key part of our global suite of energy products, which traded an average of 1.8 million contracts a day in 2011.
Henry Hub Natural Gas futures have set a total of 11 new open interest records since the start of 2012, including a Jan. 19 record of 1,162,553 contracts.
