GSCI, NASDAQ Products Set Volume, Open Interest Records

New product volume and open interest records were set at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) for the fifth consecutive trading day Wednesday as the GSCI, the Nasdaq 100 lndex and E-mini Nasdaq 100 Index futures contracts broke into record territory. The GSCI - a world production-weighted commodity index of 26 futures contracts - posted open interest of 45,181 at the end of the trading day. It was the first time open interest in the product surpassed the 45,000 position level. Since the start of the year, open interest in the GSCI has increased nearly 72 percent. The E-mini Nasdaq 100 - a one-fifth-size, electronically traded version of the standard size contract - posted record volume for a single trading session of 12,715. The E-mini Nasdaq 100 contract, similar in design to the CME's popular E-mini S&P 500 contract, began trading in June and has mirrored the explosive growth in technology stocks this year. The CME's Nasdaq 100 contract -the leading stock index for high-tech stocks - also set an open interest record of 35,631 positions, an increase of 2,565 contracts - or 7.8 percent - from the prior day's level.