CME Trading Halt Latest News: US markets had closed Wednesday on a high note ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. But just as markets were preparing for a shortened session, CME’s electronic trading platform, which is also known as Globex, went down.
The outage spread beyond stock index futures. US treasuries, commodities, currencies and other asset classes were affected as the disruption rippled through global markets.
A statement from CME confirmed that the halt was due to a technical failure at a data centre run by CyrusOne in Illinois. The data centre houses the trade-matching engines behind Globex and other critical infrastructure.
Traders panic over outage
For many traders, the outage meant losing access to essential pricing signals. As one trader told Reuters, “It’s a bit like flying dark,” referring to how reliant markets are on live data for futures to guide decisions. With futures frozen, many turned to alternate instruments such as exchange-traded funds, to gauge market sentiment.
“Beyond the immediate risk of traders being unable to close positions – and the potential costs that follow – the incident raises broader concerns about reliability,” said Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at trading platform IG to Reuters.
“In some respects, CME was fortunate the failure occurred during the low-liquidity Thanksgiving weekend in Asian hours rather than during peak US trading.”
All eyes on trading session
The malfunction reportedly came from a cooling-system failure at the data centre, a mechanical issue rather than a cyberattack.
Many traders described the disruption as one of the most severe they have seen in years, as reported by Reuters. With US markets due to reopen for a shortened session after the Thanksgiving holiday, all eyes will be on how smoothly trading resumes.