CME Renews Exclusive License of DJIA Futures


CME Group Renews Exclusive License of Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures Contract

CHICAGO, September 12, 2007 – CME Group, the world’s largest and most diverse exchange, today announced it has renewed its contract with Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider. The agreement enables the exchange to continue to exclusively offer futures and options on futures products based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIASM) and other Dow Jones Indexes, which are some of the most recognized benchmarks in the financial industry.

The DJIA $10 futures contract, which has a $10 multiplier, has been offered at the Chicago Board of Trade, now part of CME Group, since October 6, 1997. The Dow Jones Index suite has since been expanded to include a mini-sized Dow $5 and a Big Dow DJIA $25 contract, enabling small and large investors a way to take a position based on the performance of the DJIA. In addition, the exchange recently began offering contracts based on the Dow Jones AIG Commodity Index Excess Return IndexSM and the Dow Jones U.S. Real Estate IndexSM, allowing customers more opportunities to hedge or gain exposure to an even broader array of asset classes.

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the most recognized barometers of the equity marketplace,” said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. “We are pleased to celebrate 10 years of listing derivatives on Dow Jones Index products. In particular, we are looking forward to continuing to work with Dow Jones indexes beginning in January as we offer expanded trading opportunities to our customers when Dow Jones-related index products are offered on CME Globex® alongside our other benchmark equity indexes.”

“Renewing our commitment with Dow Jones Indexes is another important milestone in our global strategy of offering innovative and liquid benchmark contracts for our domestic and international customers,” said CME Group Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. “Our ongoing relationship with Dow Jones allows us to continue to list the most comprehensive array of equity index derivatives products, including small-, mid- and large-cap indexes as well as some of the mostly widely used foreign indexes.”

CME Group took the lead introducing futures and options based on the most recognized index in the world, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The exchange and its trading community have built an excellent trading environment for futures and options based on The Dow and, over the past ten years, global volume in derivatives based on all Dow Jones indexes has increased substantially. We look forward to this trend continuing as there are more opportunities to use this popular index,” said Dow Jones Indexes President Michael A. Petronella.

Total Dow Jones complex average daily volume in August was 232,447 contracts, 161 percent increase versus August 2004.

The Big Dow DJIA $25 and the mini-sized Dow $5 trade electronically from 6:15 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Central time, Sunday through Friday. The Dow DJIA $10 trades in open outcry from 7:20 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Central time, Monday through Friday, as well as electronically from 6:15 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. Central time, Sunday through Friday.