Eurex US has announced that it will list futures on two Russell indices at the end of January 2005, the first new products introduced by the exchange since it launched with US Treasury futures in February. The contracts will be based on the large-cap Russell 1,000 and the small-cap Russell 2,000 indices, making Eurex US the third US exchange to list futures on the indices.
The products should face stiff competition from Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and New York Board of Trade (Nybot), both of which have listed the Russell indices for some time.
From January to November, CME traded 525,770 Russell 2,000 futures contracts, down 7.9% from 571,001 a year earlier. Russell 1,000 futures have been thinly traded at CME with 35,863 contracts traded for the first 11 months, up...