CME launches single-stock futures Monday on 55 large U.S. companies

CME Group launched cash-settled single-stock futures on 55 U.S. equities, along with micro-sized contracts on 22 names, in a renewed push into a market that lets investors take leveraged bullish or bearish positions on individual companies without owning the shares. The 77 contracts trade for roughly 23 hours a day, five days a week on CME's Globex platform under a quarterly expiration structure, allowing traders to respond to earnings, macroeconomic data and geopolitical developments outside regular U.S. stock market hours. The lineup includes Alphabet, Meta, Tesla, SpaceX, Micron, Pfizer and Walmart. Standard contracts represent 100 shares of the underlying stock, while micro contracts represent 10 shares, and all are cash-settled against the underlying stock's closing price at expiration. Tim McCourt, CME Group's global head of equities, FX and alternative products, said the launch is aimed at helping clients manage equity price risk with more precision and capital efficiency, while also broadening CME's user base beyond its traditional institutional clientele. CME said it is working with more than 35 retail intermediary firms to distribute the contracts. The relaunch revisits a market with a troubled U.S. history after OneChicago, a security futures venture jointly owned by CME Group, Cboe Global Markets and Interactive Brokers, shut down in September 2020 because of weak demand. The structure also carries risks: Mat Cashman, principal for investor education at the Options Clearing Corp, warned that liquidity can thin outside normal hours and trading after earnings can be choppy. CME's single-stock products do not include crypto assets, but they use the same cash-settled, margin-based framework the exchange has developed in digital-asset derivatives. CME expanded that crypto franchise in 2026 with 24/7 bitcoin and ether futures and options trading launched on May 29, though its bitcoin futures open interest later fell to $8.41 billion on April 11, a 14-month low as basis returns and trading volumes eased.