CME Group (NYSE: CME) is recently trading down $101.34 to $487.98. The U.S. Department of Justice called for an end to futures exchanges being permitted to own or control clearing functions. The CME issued a statement welcoming the opportunity to participate in industry discussions concerning market structure and the organization of clearing and settlement services. CME and NYMX (NYSE: NMX) confirmed on January 28 that they are engaged in preliminary discussions regarding CME's potential acquisition of NMX. CME call option volume of 23,643 contracts compares to put volume of 20,172 contracts. CME March option implied volatility of 62 is above a level of 47 from this morning and its 26-week average of 32 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option update: CME Group volatility spikes as CME sells off 17% on DOJ view originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.