Exchanges Benefit from Record Volumes

Market volatility escalated and trading volumes set new record highs this week, totaling 10.59 billion shares on the three major stock exchanges on July 26 alone. That was 34% above the previous record from earlier this year and a sign of increasing skittishness among investors. The heightened volatility comes as investors digest mounting evidence of a credit crunch and deeper housing market woes that could spell trouble for the broader economy in the months ahead. The 4.9% drop this week in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was its biggest decline since September, 2002, while the NASDAQ composite index and Dow Jones industrial average logged their largest losses since March. However, bucking the downdraft were shares of major exchange companies such as Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the New York Stock Exchange Euronext (NYX), and the InterContinental Exchange (ICE), which rose on July 27 on news of the record volumes.