China's yuan revaluation hits Chicago Mercantile Exchange

News on Thursday that China had abandoned its currency peg and revalued the yuan sparked the busiest day ever for electronically traded foreign exchange futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The CME, which has a near monopoly on trading of currency futures, said that volume on the Globex platform hit at an all-time high of 509,450 contracts on Thursday, up from the previous record of 454,287 contracts on June 8. The Merc also said that individual volume records were set Thursday for futures on the yen, the euro, and the pound.

Amid political pressure to adopt a more free-market approach, China announced that it was moving away from the tightly managed currency peg that kept the yuan at about 8.277 to the dollar. Chinese monetary authorities set the new value at 8.11 to the dollar and said the yuan will be pegged to a basket of currencies.

Shares of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. hit a record high of $315 during Thursday's session. In morning trading Monday, the shares were at $304.45, up $1.14 from Friday's close, AP reports.