TLDR
- CME Group suspended all futures and options trading Friday after cooling systems failed at CyrusOne data center
- Market freeze affected crude oil, Treasury bonds, S&P 500 futures, foreign exchange, and derivative markets worldwide
- Price data remained frozen for several hours with no updates available as of early Friday morning
- Timing during post-Thanksgiving early hours hit Asian and European trading sessions harder than US markets
- CME operates the world’s largest derivatives marketplace handling commodities, energy, metals, and equity contracts
Trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange came to a complete stop Friday when cooling equipment malfunctioned at a key data center. The shutdown affected the world’s largest derivatives trading platform during active global market hours.
A CME Group spokesperson confirmed the system-wide halt in an early morning announcement. “Due to a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, our markets are currently halted,” the statement read. Technical teams worked to fix the problem but could not provide a restoration timeline.
The outage impacted multiple trading systems simultaneously. Globex futures and options platforms went offline first. The EBS foreign exchange system also stopped processing trades. BMD market operations joined the list of frozen systems.
Critical market data stopped flowing at 4:29 AM Eastern Time. WTI crude oil futures showed no price updates. Ten-year US Treasury futures remained static. S&P 500 index futures displayed frozen values. Traders lost access to real-time pricing across major asset classes.
Exchange Operations Disrupted Globally
CME Group processes massive trading volumes daily across diverse markets. The platform handles agricultural commodity contracts including corn, wheat, and soybeans. Energy futures for crude oil and natural gas trade actively. Precious and industrial metal derivatives see constant activity. Equity index futures attract institutional and retail participants.
The exchange maintains its position as the world’s most valuable operator by market capitalization. Millions of contracts change hands through CME systems each trading day. The Friday breakdown interrupted these critical market functions.
CyrusOne owns and manages the affected data center facility. The Texas-based company operates numerous facilities supporting financial infrastructure. Representatives from CyrusOne did not immediately respond to media inquiries about the cooling system breakdown.
Market Participants Navigate Extended Outage
Emir Syazwan, who trades futures at Ninefold Trading Co. in Malaysia, described constant communication with his broker. “I had been on the phone throughout the afternoon” local time, he told reporters. The outage timing created more problems for Asian market hours.
European traders faced similar disruptions to their morning sessions. Most American market participants remained offline during the early Friday hours. The malfunction occurred during the holiday-shortened week following Thanksgiving. Markets were scheduled for an early 1 PM Eastern close.
Trading activity had already slowed before the system failure. Markets moved in narrow ranges since November 26 around 10 PM Eastern. This consolidation pattern looked likely to continue through the outage period.
US stock futures had posted modest gains before the freeze. Dow Jones futures climbed 0.1 percent. S&P 500 futures advanced by the same margin. Nasdaq 100 futures increased 0.2 percent.
November shaped up as a losing month for major indexes. The Dow and S&P 500 both tracked slightly negative. The Nasdaq declined 2 percent month-to-date. Technology sector weakness drove the pullback as AI investment enthusiasm cooled.
CME has dealt with technical problems before. A 2014 incident shut down portions of Globex electronic trading. Agricultural contracts were affected during that outage. Switzerland’s SIX exchange also experienced a trading halt last year after technical difficulties.
Exchange officials promised to communicate pre-opening procedures once systems returned to normal. CME warned traders that affected contracts might show delayed price movements after trading resumed.
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