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CME Group (CME) Gets Buy Rating From Erste Group; Argus Research Moves to Hold

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) is included among the 14 Stocks on the Verge of Becoming Dividend Aristocrats.

On March 5, Hans Engel of Erste Group upgraded CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) to Buy from Hold. A day earlier, on March 4, Argus Research downgraded CME Group to Hold from Buy. The firm expects “muted growth” in several parts of the company’s business. These include equity index, metals, crypto, and micro contracts traded by retail investors. At the same time, the analyst believes stronger activity in agriculture and prediction markets could help offset some of that slowdown, according to the research note.

On March 9, CME Group reported a new milestone in its energy trading business. The company said its energy complex reached a single-day volume record of 8.3 million contracts on March 6. That figure surpassed the previous daily record of 7.9 million contracts set just days earlier, on March 3, 2026. Trading activity across the complex produced several additional records that day. Energy options volume reached 1.43 million contracts, crude oil complex volume climbed to 5.73 million contracts, and Micro Crude Oil futures also hit a record, with 748,729 contracts traded.

Activity in refined products was also strong. CME Group Refined Products, driven by RBOB Gasoline futures and New York Harbor Ultra-low Sulfur Diesel futures, reached a new single-day record of 1.25 million contracts on March 3, 2026. All five of the top-performing volume days for the refined products complex occurred during the past week. That surge pushed the five-day average volume to 1.09 million contracts.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME) operates a global derivatives marketplace. Its platforms allow clients to trade futures, options, cash products, and over-the-counter markets. The company’s exchanges list benchmark products across major asset classes, including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products, and metals.

While we acknowledge the potential of CME to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CME and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading into 2026 and 13 Best REIT Dividend Stocks to Invest in

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The $250 Trillion AI Hype is Real. A few years from now, you’ll probably wish you’d bought this stock.

Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

When Jeff Bezos said that one breakthrough technology would shape Amazon’s destiny, even Wall Street’s biggest analysts were caught off guard.

Fast forward a year and Amazon’s new CEO Andy Jassy described generative AI as a “once-in-a-lifetime” technology that is already being used across Amazon to reinvent customer experiences.

At the 8th Future Investment Initiative conference, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040 there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots, with each priced between $20,000 and $25,000.

Do the math. According to Musk, this technology could be worth $250 trillion by 2040.

Put another way, that’s roughly equal to:

  • 175 Teslas
  • 107 Amazons
  • 140 Metas
  • 84 Googles
  • 65 Microsofts
  • And 55 Nvidias

And here’s the wild part — this $250 trillion wave isn’t tied to one company, but to an entire ecosystem of AI innovators set to reshape the global economy.

It’s a leap so massive, it could reshape how businesses, governments, and consumers operate worldwide.

Even if that $250 trillion figure sounds ambitious, major firms like PwC and McKinsey still see AI unlocking multi-trillion-dollar potential.

How could anything be worth that much?

The answer lies in a breakthrough so powerful it’s redefining how humanity works, learns, and creates.

And this breakthrough has already set off a frenzy among hedge funds and Wall Street’s top investors.

What most investors don’t realize is that one under-owned company holds the key to this $250 trillion revolution.

In fact, Verge argues this company’s supercheap AI technology should concern rivals.

Before I reveal the details, let’s talk about how some of the richest people on the planet are positioning themselves.

  • Bill Gates sees artificial intelligence as the “biggest technological advance in my lifetime,” more transformative than the internet or personal computer, capable of improving healthcare, education, and addressing climate change.
  • Larry Ellison — through Oracle, is spending billions on Nvidia chips and partnering with Cohere to embed generative AI across Oracle’s cloud and apps.
  • Warren Buffett — not known for tech hype — says this breakthrough could have a ‘hugely beneficial social impact.

When billionaires from Silicon Valley to Wall Street line up behind the same idea — you know it’s worth paying attention to.

Even as we admire what Tesla, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Microsoft have built, we believe an even greater opportunity lies elsewhere…

But the real story isn’t Nvidia — it’s a much smaller company quietly improving the critical technology that makes this entire revolution possible.

And judging by what I’m hearing from both Silicon Valley insiders and Wall Street veterans…

This prediction might not be bold at all:

A few years from now, you’ll wish you’d owned this stock.

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Buy This $3 Stock Now Before the 400% Surge Begins

Dr. Inan Dogan

Dr. Ian Dogan

Co-Founder and Research Director at Insider Monkey

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We looked under the cover and realized they were wrong.

We alerted our subscribers, and BTI returned 90% in just 16 months.

Now if you had invested just $10,000 in BTI in June 2024, you’d be sitting on $19,000 in October 2025.

Today, we have identified a nearly identical pattern in a digital-first giant trading at $3.

While the market panics over a surface-level revenue decline, our PhD-led research shows management has actually surgically cut $100 million in waste to focus on high-margin growth.

This pattern is a hallmark of our 16.5% annual return track record. The current opportunity offers a 400% upside potential—dwarfing even our 90% BTI return.

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