Electronic Trading Briefs

Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc.--parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.--reported record revenues and a 40 percent increase in net income for the first quarter of 2003, citing higher trading volumes as the main reason. Net revenues jumped 25 percent to a record $126 million for the first quarter of this year, versus $101.1 million for the same period of 2002. Net income totaled $26.1 million, as compared with $18.7 million for the first quarter last year. Average daily trading volume was 2.4 million contracts--20 percent more than the same quarter a year ago. Trading on CME's Globex electronic trading platform grew 109 percent in the first quarter versus 2002, with 1.1 million average contracts a day.

Citing tough business conditions in the U.S. and elsewhere, Instinet Group Incorporated reported a net loss of $34 million, or .10 cents per share for the first quarter of 2003, compared to a net loss of $35 million, or 14 cents per share, for the first quarter of 2002. Clients traded 31.5 billion U.S. equity shares through Instinet in the first quarter of 2003, up from 15.2 billion in the first quarter of 2002, but down 14.8 percent from 36.8 billion shares executed in the fourth a quarter of 2002. The Island ECN accounted for 12.4 billion shares of the total first quarter volume.

In a major expansion of its institutional equities trading and sales team, Schwab Capital Markets L.P. (SCM), an affiliate of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., announced the recruitment of 12 more professionals. Larry Leibowitz, executive vice president-equities for SCM states the talent was recruited to support a 250 percent increase in Schwab's institutional equities business in the past year. The new hires bolster listed-trading, sales trading and OTC trading areas.