CME Group Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CME Group second quarter 2019 earnings call. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to John Pescher. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning to everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm going to start with a safe harbor language, then I'll turn it over to Terry and John for brief remarks, followed by questions. Other members of our management team will also participate. Statements made on this call in and in other reference documents on our website that are not historical facts or forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. They involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or implied in any statements. More detailed information about factors that may affect our performance can be found in our filings with the SEC, which are on our website. On the final page of our earnings release, you will find a reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP measures. With that, I will turn the call over to Terry.

Thank you, John, and thank you all for joining us today. My comments today will be brief so we can get right into your questions. We released our executive commentary this morning, which provided extensive details on the second quarter. In Q2, average daily volume grew to 21 million contracts per day, up 14 percent compared to last year. We had record quarterly average daily volume in agricultural products as well as interest rate, agriculture, and metals options. Open interest reached an all-time high above 150 million contracts on June 13th. We continued to drive significant growth globally. During the second quarter, volume from outside the U.S. totaled a record 5.4 million contracts. That included 28% growth from Asia, and 22% growth in Europe. We continue to see success on the innovation front with the launch of our new micro e-mini contracts, which began on May 6th. During June, we averaged more than 400,000 contracts per day, making this the most successful new product launch in the history of CME. We're also pleased with how the next integration process is going so far. We have made great progress combining our sales forces as they begin to jointly engage with clients. We remain laser focused on this very strategic transaction and look forward to keeping you updated with our progress. With that, I'm going to turn the call over to John to provide some additional comments, and then we'll take your questions.