NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - In a bid to create North America's first exchange that trades both stocks and futures contracts, the New York Mercantile Exchange may partner with Toronto Stock Exchange owner TSX Group in a deal worth $150 million, according to a recent report.

The deal, reported Saturday in the Wall Street Journal, would involve Nymex offering 10 percent of its equity in exchange for Calgary's Natural Gas Exchange.

It would also allow commodities stocks and futures from both markets to be traded on a single electronic screen, the Journal said.

"It would create enormous arbitrage opportunities for a variety of traders and the hedge fund community," one person close to Nymex who is familiar with the talks told the Journal. "People would be able to trade oil-company equities against crude-oil futures."

The news comes just after the NYSE Group (Research) announced a merger with Euronext that would also combine stock and futures trading.

Nymex is the largest exchange for energy and metals futures in the U.S., while TSX is the world's largest exchange for energy and metals stocks, the article said.

The partnership would model similar European exchanges that trade stocks and futures in one place, according to the report.

Neither Nymex nor TSX officials would comment to the Journal.

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