Traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in April. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

Dow Jones Newswires | CME Group Inc. fourth-quarter earnings more than tripled on year-earlier write-downs, but it failed to meet analysts’ expectations after besting them in the last two quarters.  

The world’s largest futures exchange posted a profit of $202.6, or $3.04 a share, from $62.1 million, or 93 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding investment impairments in the previous period, among other items, earnings fell to $3.37 a share from $3.58. Revenue decreased 3.5 percent to $667.5 million.

See earnings statement: prnewswire.com

CME Group volume has improved, but key product groups like interest-rate futures remain under pressure.

But in the most recent period, the company saw about 20 percent growth in interest-rate and energy revenue, while foreign exchange and metals climbed by more than half.

CME launched a long-awaited credit-derivatives clearing service in December, but the effort has seen relatively little business so far, and CME is expected to have more success clearing transactions in the much-larger interest-rate swap market.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters predicted earnings of $3.43 a share on $667 million in revenue.

Operating margin, among the highest in the industry, fell to 60.3 percent from 60.4 percent.

Last month, CME said daily average trading volume was 10.2 million in the fourth quarter, up about 1 percent sequentially and down just 0.9 percent from a year earlier. Third-quarter volume had been down 23 percent year over year, after a 19 percent drop in the second.

Shares closed Wednesday at $292.11 and weren’t active premarket.