We are very pleased with the success we''ve seen with these partnerships and we believe they provide us with a strong base to aggressively market the full suite of CME Group products in those geographies. We are focused on positioning ourselves around the world to serve the customers of today as well as the customers of tomorrow.
As a measure of our global penetration, we increased our non U.S. trading hours volume to 19% in the fourth quarter, up from 17% in the third quarter. While it is difficult to track precisely, we attribute much of this growth to targeted sales efforts in Europe and Asia.
Finally, on the over the counter front, we initiated the pre-launch of over the counter clear credit default swaps in December with eight dealer founding members and six buy-side founding members. We continue to actively work on several tracks to complete the steps necessary for our public launch targeted for the end of the first quarter. Most importantly, we see the progress there as a strong foundation for the long-term success of other over-the-counter offerings.
Beyond all that I''ve just described, we were also hard at work managing the core business and despite the difficult environment, saw significant improvements there. Total open interest at CME Group grew from 63 million at the start of 2009 to 78 million at year end, an improvement of 24%. January has seen continued growth to 85 million.
Interest rate volumes were the most heavily affected by the credit crisis. Over the course of the year, we saw volume growth of 14% from the first quarter to the fourth quarter. More recently, January 2010 interest rate average daily volume of 4.8 million contracts is up 33% from January 2009.
Several macroeconomic factors that drive interest rates have stabilized over the course of the year, including improvements in liquidity and credit spreads, but areas of weakness remain. The upcoming announced exit of the Fed from its mortgaged-back securities program and its winding down of several temporary liquidity facilities are both a vote of confidence in the metrics that indicate a recovery is underway and a welcome step from markets that are eager to function based on fundamentals. It is difficult to predict timing but these and other improving factors contribute to a more active interest-rate environment.
With macroeconomic factors beyond our control, we continue to work closely with customers on new product development and we are pleased with the success of our most recent launch, the Ultra T-Bond futures. This is the most successful new interest rate product launched in CME''s history in terms of volume and open interest growth since launch. Open interest currently exceeds 40,000 contracts and we have seen very good volume participation across multiple customer types using these products for a variety of needs. All of these factors bode well for our able to grow this product over the long term.
Equities volume showed strength early in 2009, as lack of liquidity in other asset classes of high volatility drove volume, but were challenged by declining volatility during the third and fourth quarters. A return of volatility over the last two weeks of January brought volumes to 3.5 million contracts during that time period, up 67% from volumes in the first half of January.
The fourth quarter was a record quarter for energy, FX and metals volumes, which were up 21%, 57% and 59% respectively from the third quarter. All of these product areas continued to show robust volumes in January as well. Beyond our core business and strategic growth initiatives, the other key focus for management in 2010 continues to be working with our regulators to ensure the derivatives markets retain their hallmarks of effective price discovery, safety and security.
Before concluding, I would like to touch briefly on the status of ELX''s attempt through a rule filing with the CFTC, to compel CBOT to create or liquidate open positions without any corresponding transaction permitted by CBOT rules. The CFTC has not required us to take any action or modify our rules. I want to make absolutely clear that CBOT''s rules remain in full force and effect and that CBOT and CME Clearing have not been directed to accept directions from ELX or any of its members to open, liquidate or transfer positions in accordance with ELX''s rule. We are engaged in a dialogue with the CFTC regarding CBOT''s rationale for its longstanding rules prohibiting these types of transactions.
As always, we are working closely with the commission staff. We have and continue to take these issues seriously and are confident that the CBOT is operating in strict compliance with its statutory self-regulatory responsibilities and the requirements of the Commodity Exchange Act.
Given the ongoing nature of our discussions with the CFTC, I do not intend to make any further comments on this issue at this time and we thank you in advance for respecting that. There are a variety of other additional regulatory issues under consideration at the moment. CME Group appreciates the significance of the financial market''s crisis and the ensuing focus on market regulation. We believe our politicians and elected officials and regulators fundamentally recognize the value of transparent centrally cleared markets and that this recognition is reflected in much of the proposed legislation currently outstanding.
In the aggregate, there are few areas of potential harm to our business and many areas that are potentially favorable for CME Group and other exchanges. As always, we continue to work to educate lawmakers and regulators on the forces that drive our markets and how we can best maintain secure, efficient markets.
In summary, in spite of all the challenges this past year, we successfully managed the aftermath of the credit crisis and are now emerging well positioned for future growth. With fundamental market drivers achieving sustained stability, our core products are showing improvements in volume and open interest. We have executed on the early stages of our over the counter clearing and global expansion strategies and we look forward to continuing to build these efforts for long-term success.
With that, I''d like to turn the call over to Jamie to discuss our financial results.
James E. Parisi
Thank you, Craig. CME Group turned in a strong fourth quarter financial performance, generating more revenue than any other quarter in 2009. Our GAAP results are summarized in the press release. Today, I''m going to focus on the details for Q4 on a pro forma basis.
During Q4, average daily volume was down 1% compared to the fourth quarter 2008 to 10.2 million contracts per day. We generated $667 million in revenue and operating expenses were up 6% from the prior quarter, slightly less than we guided to in our last call. This resulted in $409 million of operating income and diluted earnings per share of $3.37.
In terms of customer segmentation, we saw numbers for the fourth quarter remain largely in line with third quarter results. Proprietary buy-side traders contributed 43% of overall volume. Hedge funds accounted for 8% of volume showing a slight increase in contribution for the third quarter in a row.
Bank trading accounted for 13% of volume, other member activity 20% and nonmember activity 16%. This segmentation is for legacy CME CBOT products only. We will be providing more detail for the entire CME Group product suite beginning next quarter.
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