CFTC Staff Allows Sydney Futures Exchange’s 1-Day Option Contract Based On The CBOT Mini-Sized Dow Futures Contract To Be Offered And Sold In The United States

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) Office of General Counsel issued a no-action letter (No. 06-17) on August 8, 2006, permitting the offer and sale in the United States of the Sydney Futures Exchange Corporation Limited’s (SFE’s) 1-Day Option Contract based on the CBOT Mini-Sized Dow Futures Contract.

The SFE has entered into a license agreement with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) for the provision and use of the CBOT Mini-Sized Dow Futures Contract daily settlement price to cash settle SFE’s 1-Day Option Contract. The CBOT’s Mini-Sized Dow Futures Contract is based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA). The DJIA is a broad-based price-weighted index of 30 stocks chosen by Dow Jones and Company to reflect different industrial sectors of the economy. Those stocks typically are sector-leading companies that rank among the largest companies in the world by market capitalization.

• For information on foreign exchange-traded security index futures contracts pending no-action approval with the CFTC's OGC, see the Foreign Instrument Approvals & Exemptions Backgrounder at www.cftc.gov/opa/backgrounder/opapart30.htm.