Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) is set to report its earnings on Feb 10. The stock exchange operator’s core business is energy futures, considered tackling interest rate swaps and other OTC derivatives. ICE agreed in October to purchase the broker-owned The Clearing Corp, which will provide technology for ICE's CDS clearinghouse, a trust company called ICE Trust. ICE still requires approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to clear CDS, which are contracts that insure against debt default.

In early February, ICE announced the introduction of 44 new OTC contracts for North American electricity, natural gas and natural gas liquids, subject to approval by the Risk Committee of ICE Clear Europe(R). These OTC contracts will be available for clearing beginning on March 2, 2009. With the products announced today, ICE will offer 166 cleared OTC energy contracts, including 76 new OTC contracts since the launch of ICE Clear Europe in November 2008. Alongside, the company reported volume of 20.4 million futures contracts in the first month of 2009, a decline of 5% from January 2008. ICE operates three regulated futures exchanges: ICE Futures Europe(R), ICE Futures U.S.(R), and ICE Futures Canada(TM).

Alliance Bernstein lowered its stock price targets for the exchange operator for ICE to $80 from $150 forecasting a sharp decline in growth rates in futures trading volumes. Back in early January, Broadpoint AmTech analyst Herb Weiss cut his rating on ICE to "Neutral" from "Buy". While, Goldman Sachs cut their rating on ICE to "Neutral" and removed the stock from a top buy list called "America's Conviction Buy List." Jefferies & Co. analyst also trimmed his fourth-quarter and 2009 earnings estimates to reflect a lower volume outlook.

In another development, the company announced that in accordance with the terms of its agreement with Intelligence Press, Inc. (IPI), ICE will have the exclusive right to license the natural gas indices published in the Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) newsletters for exchange settlement and clearing beginning May 1, 2009. In March 2007, ICE entered into a purchase and leaseback agreement with IPI for the exclusive right to license the NGI indices. Also, Officials at the IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) confirmed that the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice is also examining part of its business plan for clearing credit-default swaps, adding to pending approvals from other federal regulators. Part of the delay, ICE said, is that its original clearing plan submitted to the Fed didn't incorporate the Clearing Corp. deal, which had yet to be announced. That acquisition, however, will allow the company to offer a global clearing solution for credit derivatives, even though it has also made the federal approval process a tad more complex.

Earnings Estimates
Current Estimates: $0.84
Number of Estimates: 19
High Estimate: $0.97
Low Estimate: $0.78
Last Year EPS: $0.94
Percentage Growth: -11.00 %

Disclosure: The author does not own any of the stocks mentioned above.