Average daily volume in Class III milk futures has recently strengthened, averaging more than 1,000 contracts per day to date in January, compared to average daily volume of 410 in all of 2002. A single-day volume record of 2,096 contracts was set on Jan. 8.
"Our members' vision for a thriving dairy market complex at CME is becoming a reality," said CME Chairman Terry Duffy. "The recent growth in our milk futures contract is testimony to the value that the dairy industry places on our liquidity, innovation and market integrity. With this new record in open interest for milk, overall open interest in our dairy products is more than 30,000 positions."
"The success of our dairy contracts demonstrates CME's commitment to offering the risk management tools that our customers need," said CME President and CEO Jim McNulty. "When we launched dairy futures eight years ago, we anticipated that this market would become an important part of our agricultural complex. The U.S. dairy market is a multi-billion dollar industry, and our dairy futures products look well positioned for 2003."
In addition to Class III milk futures and options on futures, CME trades butter and Class IV milk in its Dairy Complex, as well as cash markets on butter, cheese and nonfat dry milk. CME began trading Class III milk futures and options on futures January 1996. Open interest represents the number of futures and options on futures contracts outstanding at the close of trading each day. Open interest can be seen as a measure of the use of risk management instruments by institutions and individuals with a long-term stake in the markets, as well as the liquidity of a contract. Previous records in Class III milk futures and options on futures were set on June 1, 2001, at 18,125 and on Aug. 2, 2001, at 7,477 positions respectively.
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 GLOBEX® around-the-clock 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 moves an average of about $1.8 billion per day in settlement payments and manages $27.4 billion in collateral deposits. On Dec. 6, 2002, Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CME) and its CME subsidiary became the first publicly traded U.S. financial exchange.
