NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the licensing of the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index and its nine sector sub-indexes to Eurex, one of the world's largest derivatives exchanges and the leading clearing house in Europe, to underlie standardized exchange-traded futures and options contracts. Eurex plans to launch derivatives in the first quarter of 2009.
This is the first time the nine Dow Jones AIG Commodity Sub-Sector Indexes serve as the basis for futures and options contracts. The nine indexes are the Dow Jones-AIG Energy, the Dow Jones-AIG Petroleum, the Dow Jones-AIG Livestock, the Dow Jones-AIG Ex-Energy, the Dow Jones-AIG Grains, the Dow Jones-AIG Industrial Metals, the Dow Jones-AIG Precious Metals, the Dow Jones-AIG Softs, and the Dow Jones-AIG Agriculture sub-indexes.
"Commodities enjoy a vast recognition by market participants who are aiming to expand their portfolio beyond traditional equity asset classes," said Michael A. Petronella, president, Dow Jones Indexes. "The Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index series offers a variety of sophisticated benchmarks to measure the commodities market as a whole, or to concentrate on single commodities or sectors. The superior methodology provides a balanced weighting of the 19 commodities in this family."
"Our planned derivatives on the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Indexes will significantly increase our product offering in the commodities area," said Peter Reitz, member of the Eurex Executive board. "This is another milestone in our strategy to offer our customers multi-asset class products on a global scale. We will add transparency and central clearing to the existing OTC index swap market."
The Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index was introduced in 1999 and is composed of futures contracts on 19 physical commodities. The Dow Jones-AIG Commodity family of indexes includes nine sector sub-indexes, multiple forward month indexes and sub-indexes for each of the 19 individual commodities in the original Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, as well as for cocoa, lead, platinum and tin. Also available are Euro-, Yen-, Swiss Franc-, and British Pound-denominated versions of the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, and the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Spot Index(sm), and total return versions of each of the excess return indexes and sub-indexes.
As of October 15, 2008, the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index is down -25.05% for the year, the Dow Jones-AIG Energy Sub-Index is down -22.19%, the Dow Jones-AIG Petroleum Sub-Index has lost -22.52%, the Dow Jones-AIG Livestock Sub-Index is down -24.42%, the Dow Jones-AIG Ex-Energy Sub-Index has lost -26.42%, the Dow Jones-AIG Grains Sub-Index is down -31.65%, the Dow Jones-AIG Industrial Metals Sub-Index is down -29.30%, the Dow Jones-AIG Precious Metals Sub-Index has lost -11.01%, the Dow Jones-AIG Softs Sub-Index is down -29.50%, and the Dow Jones-AIG Agriculture Sub-Index has lost -30.55%.
As of the end of the third quarter of 2008, there is an estimated US$35 billion tracking the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Indexes. Index methodology and futures contracts used to calculate the index are published in the DJ-AIGCI Handbook. The handbook can be requested via www.djindexes.com or www.aigfp.com.
Further information on the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Indexes is available at www.djindexes.com.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com.
Note to Editors:
About Dow Jones Indexes
A full-service index provider, Dow Jones Indexes develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes, and together with Wilshire Associates, provides the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index family, which is anchored by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and covers more than 12,000 securities in 59 markets. Beyond equity indexes, Dow Jones Indexes maintains a number of alternative indexes, including measures of the hedge fund and commodity markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. www.djindexes.com
Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (NYSE:NWS) (NYSE:NWS.A) (ASX:NWS) (ASX:NWSLV) (www.newscorp.com). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.
The Dow Jones & Company logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4578
About Eurex
The international derivatives exchange Eurex, jointly owned by Deutsche Borse AG and SIX Swiss Exchange AG, organizes markets globally. Eurex is home to the Euro zone interest rate and equity index benchmark derivatives. Eurex's portfolio of markets includes International Securities Exchange, the world's largest equity options exchange. The ECNs Eurex Repo and Eurex Bonds round out Eurex's offering for repo and bond trading. In addition, Eurex provides an automated and integrated clearing house, Eurex Clearing AG. Eurex's global liquidity network comprises around 400 direct exchange members in 22 countries worldwide.
For more information about Eurex, visit www.eurexchange.com.