CME Group announced that its new credit futures are scheduled to begin trading on Monday, June 17, 2024 alongside the company’s US Treasury complex.
The credit futures will be the first futures contracts to help market participants manage duration risk through an intercommodity spread with US Treasury futures. In addition, for the first time ever, investors can gain exposure to and manage credit component risk through futures on Bloomberg’s duration-hedged index.
“Since announcing our expansion into credit futures earlier this year, we have received very positive feedback from market participants with exposure to credit, interest rates, equities and other assets,” said Agha Mirza, CME Group global head of Rates and OTC Products, in a statement “Designed for efficiency, our credit futures will support spread trading with automatic margin offsets against our Interest Rate and Equity Index futures.”
The contracts will be based on the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Index, which measures the performance of investment grade corporate bonds, and the Bloomberg U.S. High Yield Very Liquid Index, which is designed to measure a liquid, diversified component of the high yield corporate bond market.
“CME Group’s upcoming launch of futures based on the Bloomberg U.S. Corporate Bond Indices supports the continued advancement of fixed income markets,” said Umesh Gajria, global head of Index Linked Products at Bloomberg Index Services, in a statement. “These credit futures can provide a capital efficient vehicle for investors to manage their exposures and risks to their bond portfolios through the derivatives market.”