Chicago Merc: Good 'Regulatory' Play

In the face of two big Washington initiatives, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange(CME Quote) and its shares have come sharply into view for investors in the last week. Because I think investors have overplayed one of them and overlooked the other, CME shares (along with IntercontinentalExchange(ICE Quote) and NYSE Euronext(NYX Quote) to a degree) look like tremendous buys right here.

The "endless bid" -- a phrase I coined to describe the unending appetite of investors for exposure to crude oil -- has finally come of age.

Last year, while oil was rocketing to $147 a barrel, and I was talking about the investment speculation premium in the market, I was being contradicted by Boone Pickens; Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and our Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, all claiming that the moves were fundamentally based. ...