Key Highlights

• CME's market data Revenue hit a record $238 million, up 20%, even as average daily contract Volume dipped slightly from a year-earlier record.

• ICE's total futures and Options open interest reached a record 130.5 million contracts, though quarterly energy revenue fell 13% to $518 million.

• ICE agreed to acquire MarketAxess for about $5.7 billion in an all-cash deal, expected to close in the first half of 2027.

CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) both earn a large share of their income when banks, energy producers, airlines, farmers and asset managers use futures and options to lock in a price, rate or spread. Both are S&P 500 constituents in the Financials sector's Financial Exchanges & Data sub-industry. Yet second-quarter 2026 results, covering the three months to June 30, 2026, show that more hedging activity does not translate into revenue in a straight line, and that the two groups are exposed to it in different ways.

Hedging Is the Product Both Groups Sell

A Futures Contract lets a user fix today the price of something bought or sold later. The exchange earns a fee when the trade is executed and cleared, and its clearing house stands between buyer and seller, holding Collateral known as margin. Two measures matter: average daily volume, the number of contracts traded each day, and open interest, the number of contracts still held at the end of a day.

Volume drives near-term fees. Open interest shows how many positions customers are keeping on the books, which is closer to a gauge of standing hedging need. The two do not always move together.

CME's (NASDAQ:CME) Quarter: Slightly Lower Volume, Record Data Income

CME reported on July 22, 2026, second-quarter revenue of $1.7 billion, broadly level with $1.69 billion a year earlier. Average Daily Volume was 29.8 million contracts, the third-highest quarter in its history but below the 30.2 million record set in the second quarter of 2025, when Tariff announcements drove heavy trading.

The mix is telling. Interest-rate volume fell to 14.5 million contracts from 15.5 million and energy to 2.7 million from 3.1 million, while equity-index volume rose to 8.6 million from 7.7 million. The average rate per contract slipped to $0.678 from $0.690, so clearing and transaction fees eased to $1.35 billion from $1.39 billion.

Offsetting that, market data revenue rose 20% to a record $238 million. Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share were $2.99 against $2.96; reported GAAP EPS was $2.88 against $2.81. Chairman and chief executive Terry Duffy described the first half as the strongest in the group's history.

CME said it provided more than $95 billion a day in Margin efficiencies, meaning offsetting positions across products reduced the collateral customers had to post. It also highlighted new risk-management tools, including single-stock futures and one-ounce gold contracts available around the clock.

ICE (NYSE:ICE): Record Positions, Softer Energy Fees

ICE, listed on the New York Stock Exchange that it owns, reported on July 30, 2026, net revenue of $2.7 billion, up 5%. Adjusted EPS rose 5% to $1.90 and GAAP EPS 14% to $1.69.

Here the hedging picture is more nuanced. On May 27, 2026, ICE said total futures and options open interest had reached a record 130.5 million contracts, with global Natural Gas positions up 11% year on year. Yet quarterly energy revenue fell 13% to $518 million from $595 million. Energy trading had surged earlier in the year: ICE recorded record daily volume of 35 million contracts on March 3, 2026, as customers reacted to events in the Middle East that began February 28.

Other lines grew. Financials revenue, which includes European interest-rate futures such as Euribor and SONIA, rose 21% to $192 million, and agricultural and metals revenue 35% to $87 million.

Why Open Interest and Revenue Can Diverge

Hedgers often hold positions for months rather than trading them daily. A spike in uncertainty lifts volume as customers rebalance; once hedges are in place, open interest can stay high while turnover calms. That helps explain how ICE could report record positions alongside lower quarterly energy fees.

Pricing also matters. Large institutional users receive volume discounts, so a shift in customer mix changes the rate per contract even when volumes hold. CME's slightly lower rate illustrates how fee income can soften without any fall in underlying Demand for risk management.

Different Routes to the Same Customer

CME is more concentrated: clearing and transaction fees made up nearly four-fifths of second-quarter revenue, and interest-rate products are its largest franchise. Hedging demand from rate and Equity users therefore feeds almost directly into earnings.

ICE is broader. Recurring Revenue from data, connectivity, listings and Mortgage technology was $1.35 billion, slightly more than net transaction revenue of $1.31 billion. Its Mortgage Technology segment alone produced $557 million. On July 30, 2026, ICE also agreed to acquire MarketAxess for $167 per share in cash, an Enterprise value of about $5.7 billion, expected to close in the first half of 2027, subject to Shareholder and regulatory approvals. That would deepen its exposure to electronic Bond Trading rather than to Derivatives hedging.

Capital Returns

Capital returns remained substantial at both groups. ICE returned $1.8 billion in the first half, including $1.2 billion of buybacks, and its board raised the repurchase authorisation to $4.0 billion from July 1, 2026. CME paid about $468 million in dividends and bought back $695 million of shares in the second quarter.

Risks to the Interpretation

Hedging demand is partly cyclical. If interest-rate expectations settle or energy prices stabilise, volumes can fall back, as CME's rate and energy lines and ICE's energy revenue showed in the latest quarter. Comparisons against the record second quarter of 2025 flatter neither company.

Other risks include fee pressure from large customers, competition in Treasury clearing and new products, and, for ICE, the financing and integration of MarketAxess: Debt stood at $19.8 billion on June 30, 2026, before that deal.

Hedging-Demand Signals Ahead

The most useful indicators are monthly volume and open-interest releases. CME's August 2026 update showed average daily volume of 29.7 million contracts, up 6% year on year, with US Treasury volume up 15%. Investors can track whether ICE's record open interest converts into higher energy fees, whether CME's market data growth continues, and the MarketAxess approval process.