S&P Global and CME Group to sell OSTTRA to KKR for $3.1 billion

CME Group announced plans to launch a second BrokerTec central limit order book (CLOB) for cash U.S. Treasuries in Chicago in the third quarter of 2025. This new venue will be co-located with CME Group’s U.S. Treasury futures and options markets, enabling more efficient trading between cash and derivatives markets.

The initiative aims to streamline relative value strategies by eliminating the challenges of trading between New York and Chicago markets. The new CLOB will allow for smaller notional sizes and finer price increments, expanding access to spread trading for smaller firms and enhancing liquidity.

BrokerTec’s primary CLOB in New York will continue to serve as the main venue for price discovery, with an average daily notional volume of $113 billion in February 2025. The new Chicago-based CLOB will focus on relative value trading, aligning cash Treasuries with futures market dynamics.

Clients can access the platform through CME Group’s Globex network using their existing BrokerTec API connections. Testing begins on April 27, 2025.

For more details, visit [CME Group’s website](https://www.cmegroup.com/chicago-CLOB).

CME Group has launched High Yield Duration-Hedged Credit futures, its fourth credit futures contract based on Bloomberg corporate bond indexes. This new product allows investors to manage credit exposure with greater precision as demand for fixed-income hedging tools grows.

Since June 2024, CME Group has traded over 275,000 credit futures contracts, with open interest reaching 3,200 contracts, representing $320 million in notional value. The new contract provides automatic margin offsets against CME Group's Interest Rate and Equity Index futures, enhancing capital efficiency.

Available for trading on CME Globex and clearing via CME ClearPort, these credit futures are the first to help market participants manage duration risk through an intercommodity spread with U.S. Treasury futures. The contracts are listed under the rules of the Chicago Board of Trade.

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, offers a broad range of futures, options, and clearing services across asset classes, including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, and metals.

CME Group has announced the launch of Bloomberg Commodity (BCOM) Subindex futures on March 31, pending regulatory approval. These new contracts will provide investors with exposure to seven key commodity sectors, including agriculture, grains, livestock, petroleum, energy, all metals, and precious metals.

The expansion builds on the success of existing BCOM futures, offering market participants additional tools for commodity risk management and trading strategies. The launch reflects growing demand for BCOM-based strategies, with trading volume and open interest in BCOM products seeing significant year-over-year growth.

The new futures will be listed on CME and are designed to enhance capital and margin efficiencies for investors. More details can be found at CME Group’s website.

U.S. farmer sentiment saw a significant rise in February, with the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer increasing by 11 points to 152. This improvement was mainly driven by the Current Conditions Index, which surged 28 points to 137, reflecting a recovery from last year's lows. The Future Expectations Index saw a smaller increase of 3 points to 159.

The rise in sentiment is attributed to recovering crop prices, expectations of disaster payments from Congress, and strength in the livestock sector. Despite the improvement in current conditions, farmers remain more optimistic about the future, with the Future Expectations Index continuing to outpace the Current Conditions Index by 22 points.

The Farm Capital Investment Index rose 11 points to 59, reaching its highest level since May 2021. Farmers' improved outlook on current conditions drove this increase. Meanwhile, the Farm Financial Performance Index remained steady at 110, significantly higher than last fall’s low of 68.

The Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index increased by 3 points to 118, reflecting improving sentiment compared to late summer and early fall 2024. However, optimism about farmland values remains lower than in 2021 and 2022.

Half of the farmers surveyed indicated they have no plans to grow their operations or plan to exit farming, a figure nearly unchanged from 2024. However, 19% of respondents expect their farms to grow by 10% to 15% annually, more than double last year’s figure.

Policy concerns remain a major focus for U.S. farmers. Sixty-two percent of respondents believe passing a new farm bill in 2025 is important, while 44% cited trade policy as the most critical issue for their farm over the next five years. Nearly half of the surveyed farmers believe a trade war that impacts U.S. agricultural exports is likely or very likely.

While the outlook for U.S. agriculture has improved, concerns about trade policy and the farm bill remain key factors shaping farmer sentiment in the months ahead.

SOURCE: CME GROUP

CME Group reported a record monthly average daily volume (ADV) of 33.1 million contracts in February 2025, reflecting a 12% year-over-year increase. Growth was observed across all asset classes, with notable records in interest rate products, U.S. Treasury markets, agricultural commodities, and cryptocurrency products.

Interest rate ADV reached a record 19.2 million contracts, driven by U.S. Treasury futures and options ADV of 13 million contracts and a 15% increase in SOFR futures trading. Equity index ADV grew by 9% to 7.2 million contracts, while energy ADV rose 11% to 2.8 million contracts, supported by record energy options trading.

Agricultural ADV increased by 15%, led by a 28% rise in corn futures. Foreign exchange ADV climbed 25%, with notable increases in Japanese yen and Canadian dollar futures. Metals ADV surged 33%, driven by record metals options trading and a 183% increase in Micro Gold futures.

Cryptocurrency trading saw significant expansion, with a 234% increase in ADV. Ether futures reached a record monthly ADV of 15,000 contracts, while Micro Ether futures and Micro Bitcoin futures saw gains of 374% and 209%, respectively.

International ADV reached a record 9.5 million contracts, with EMEA ADV up 17% to 7 million contracts and Asia ADV up 22% to 2.1 million contracts.

CME Group operates one of the world’s leading derivatives marketplaces, providing trading, clearing, and risk management services across major asset classes. More details on the February 2025 market statistics are available at CME Group’s investor relations website.

CME Group announced plans to launch Solana (SOL) futures on March 17, pending regulatory review. Traders will have the option to choose between a micro-sized contract (25 SOL) and a larger contract (500 SOL).

Giovanni Vicioso, Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products at CME Group, highlighted that the new futures respond to growing demand for regulated products to manage cryptocurrency price risk. The contracts will be cash-settled based on the CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, calculated daily at 4:00 p.m. London time.

SOL futures will join CME Group’s existing crypto products, which include Bitcoin and Ether futures. Year-to-date, CME’s cryptocurrency trading has seen significant growth, with an average daily volume of 202,000 contracts, up 73% year-over-year, and an open interest of 243,600 contracts, up 55%. More than 11,300 unique accounts have traded crypto products.

Teddy Fusaro, President of Bitwise Asset Management, called the launch a milestone in the evolution of the cryptocurrency market, emphasizing CME’s role in institutionalizing crypto trading. Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital and Elad Even-Chen of Plus500 also praised the move, noting that the new futures provide investors with better tools to manage risk and exposure.

SOL futures will be listed under CME’s rules, and more details are available at www.cmegroup.com/sol. CME Group remains a leader in the derivatives marketplace, offering a wide range of global benchmark products across various asset classes.

CME Group reported a new single-day trading volume record of 67.1 million contracts on February 25, surpassing the previous record set in March 2023. The increase was driven by heightened activity in interest rate and U.S. Treasury markets, with interest rate futures and options reaching nearly 51 million contracts and U.S. Treasury futures and options exceeding 40 million contracts. Key contributors included record volumes in 2-Year and Ultra 10-Year U.S. Treasury Note futures.

CEO Terry Duffy attributed the surge to market participants seeking risk management amid uncertainty. CME Group continues to provide tools for managing risk across various asset classes, including U.S. Treasuries, SOFR, and credit products. The company offers trading through platforms such as CME Globex, BrokerTec, and EBS, as well as clearing services through CME Clearing.

CME Group has announced the first trades of its newly launched options on Bitcoin Friday futures. The first trade, executed on February 23, 2025, was a block trade between Cumberland DRW and Galaxy, cleared by Marex.

According to Giovanni Vicioso, global head of cryptocurrency products at CME Group, these cash-settled contracts offer expirations every business day, providing traders with greater precision in managing short-term Bitcoin price risk.

Cumberland DRW’s head of options trading, Roman Makarov, emphasized the contracts’ role in enhancing liquidity, flexibility, and optionality in the growing intersection between traditional and crypto markets. Similarly, Brooks Dudley, head of digital assets sales at Marex, highlighted the contracts’ ability to provide traders with better visibility into short-term volatility.

The introduction of these options complements CME Group’s existing cryptocurrency offerings, which include physically-settled options on Bitcoin, Ether, Micro Bitcoin, and Micro Ether futures. The lower notional value and 4 p.m. New York settlement time make these contracts accessible and attractive to a wide range of market participants.

CME Group continues to expand its cryptocurrency derivatives suite, reinforcing its position as a leading marketplace for risk management solutions.

source: CME Group, February 25, 2025.

CME Group and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) have announced plans to expand their cross-margining arrangement, extending margin savings and capital efficiencies to end users by December 2025, subject to regulatory approval.

The enhancement will allow eligible end-user clients at CME Group and DTCC's Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) to access capital efficiencies when trading U.S. Treasury securities and CME Group interest rate futures with offsetting risk exposures. Clients will need to use the same dually registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and broker/dealer at both central counterparties to participate.

Laura Klimpel, Managing Director and Head of DTCC’s Fixed Income and Financing Solutions, highlighted that extending cross-margining benefits to more customer accounts would improve efficiency, reduce costs, enhance liquidity, and strengthen risk management in U.S. Treasury markets. Suzanne Sprague, CME Group’s Chief Operating Officer, emphasized the importance of this milestone in improving capital efficiency for market participants.

The proposed arrangement will designate cross-margin accounts at FICC, enabling eligible positions to offset with CME Group interest rate futures. CME Group will facilitate futures direction to end-user cross-margin accounts throughout the day for offsetting risk exposures.

Ahead of regulatory approvals, end users can establish new accounts, complete necessary legal documentation, and test end-to-end workflows.

Source: CME Group, "CME Group and DTCC to Enhance Existing Cross-Margining Arrangement," February 24, 2025.