CME Launches 55 Single-Stock Futures for Nearly 24-Hour Trading as Perps Threat Looms
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Jul 27
CME Launches 55 Single-Stock Futures for Nearly 24-Hour Trading as Perps Threat Looms
3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Jul 27
Summary
CME on Monday began trading cash-settled single-stock futures on 55 U.S. equities, plus micro contracts on 22 names, on its Globex platform from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon with a one-hour daily break.
The contracts let investors take leveraged long or short positions outside regular U.S. market hours, including around earnings, and CME pitched them as a simpler alternative to options because they avoid time decay and implied-volatility shifts.
Standard contracts track 100 shares and micro contracts 10 shares; the initial lineup includes SpaceX, Micron, Nvidia, Tesla and Apple, with final settlement tied to the stock's official closing price at expiration.
More than 35 retail partners were targeting day-one or week-one readiness, according to a Morgan Stanley note, and CME said it could expand beyond the initial 55 stocks based on demand.
The launch comes as overseas perpetual futures exchanges pressure traditional venues and after the CFTC cleared Kalshi and Coinbase this year to offer crypto-related perps, a move seen as opening the door to broader equity-linked products.