MarketAxess Announces Monthly Volume Statistics for February 2024 - Record Total Credit Trading ADV of $15.2 Billion; Record U.S. High-Grade ADV of $7.7 Billion

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, today announced monthly trading volume and preliminary variable transaction fees per million (“FPM”) for February 2024.¹

Chris Concannon, CEO of MarketAxess, commented:

“We delivered record total credit ADV of $15.2 billion, driven by a 14.6% increase in U.S. high-grade ADV, a 12.5% increase in emerging markets ADV, a 9.1% increase in Eurobonds ADV, and an 8.0% increase in municipal bonds ADV. Strong credit volumes quarter-to-date across several of our growth cylinders have more than offset significantly lower levels of U.S. high-yield trading activity on our platform impacted by continued low levels of credit spread volatility. The roll-out of MarketAxess X-Pro is continuing and client engagement is increasing with approximately 14% of our largest client firms active on the platform, up from 12% in January 2024.”

Select February 2024 highlights*

• Record total credit average daily volume (“ADV”) of $15.2 billion, up 5.1%.
• Record U.S. high-grade ADV of $7.7 billion, up 14.6% on an 18.6% increase in estimated market ADV. Estimated market share of 19.5%, down from 20.1% in the prior year on record February new issuance calendar.
• U.S. high-yield ADV of $1.4 billion, down 37.1%. Estimated market share of 12.9%, down from 19.2% in the prior year. U.S. high-yield estimated market ADV decreased 6.3%. We believe the decrease in U.S. high-yield estimated market share year-over-year was driven, in part, by lower levels of credit spread volatility and a greater focus on the new issue calendar by our long-only client segment. Lower levels of credit spread volatility drove an estimated 73.8% decrease in ETF market maker client activity on our platform.
• Emerging markets ADV of $3.6 billion, up 12.5%. The year-over-year increase was driven by a 6.4% increase in hard currency trading ADV, and a 26.5% growth in local currency markets trading ADV.²
• Eurobonds ADV of $2.0 billion, up 9.1%.²
• Municipal bond ADV of $434 million, up 8.0% with estimated market ADV down 17.2%. Estimated market share of 6.8%, up from 5.4% in the prior year.²
• AxessIQ, the order and execution workflow solution designed for wealth management and private banking clients, achieved ADV of $141.4 million, up 21.2% from the prior year.
• 34% Open Trading® share³ of total credit trading volume, down from 36% in the prior year.
• Total rates ADV of $19.1 billion, down 18.6% from prior year, but up 13.0% from January 2024.
• The preliminary FPM¹ for total credit for February 2024 was approximately $152, down from $168 in the prior year, $156 in January 2024, and $154 quarter-to-date. The decline in total credit FPM compared to the prior year was due principally to product mix shift. The decline in total credit FPM compared to January 2024 was driven principally by lower duration of bonds traded in U.S. high-grade. The preliminary FPM for total rates was $4.30, compared to $4.13 in the prior year.

*All comparisons versus February 2023 unless otherwise noted.

Table 1: February 2024 trading ADV

Table 1A: February 2024 estimated market share

¹ The FPM for total credit and total rates for February 2024 are preliminary and may be revised in subsequent updates and public filings. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any fee information in future press releases.

² See “General Notes Regarding the Data Presented” below.

³ Open Trading share of total credit trading volume is derived by taking total Open Trading volume across all credit products where Open Trading is offered and dividing by total credit trading volume across all credit products where Open Trading is offered.

⁴ The number of U.S. trading days is based on the SIFMA holiday recommendation calendar and the number of U.K. trading days is based primarily on the U.K. Bank holiday schedule.