(Bloomberg) — The Chicago Mercantile Exchange was poised to restore most trading operations after an hours-long outage that crippled key parts of financial markets.
The exchange said its Globex Futures & Options markets, which handles futures, options, and commodities trading and accounts for 90% of CME Group’s volume, will open at 7:30 a.m. central time, according to an update on its website.
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Earlier, the EBS market, a platform used in foreign exchange, reopened at noon London time, according to a notice on the CME Group Inc.’s website.
The halt had gone on longer than a similar outage due to a technical error back in 2019 and underscores the reach of CME Group and its Globex electronic trading platform. It triggered widespread frustration as market participants contemplated the prospect of a lost trading session for millions of contracts tracking the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 on one of the world’s largest derivatives exchanges.
Foreign-exchange markets, which had continued to trade throughout the day, saw no major volatility after the noon reopening. Moves in G-10 currencies were fairly contained on Friday, with the dollar little changed against the yen and up 0.2% against the euro.
The trading halt was caused by a cooling system malfunction at a data center in the Chicago area, according to facility operator CyrusOne. Engineering teams have restarted several chillers and deployed temporary cooling equipment, a spokesperson said, without giving a time for the resumption of normal operations at the site.
For markets affected by the outage, the impact was significant. Trading of US Treasury futures remained halted, while cash bonds saw limited activity. European and UK bond markets that trade on a different exchange were unaffected.
For some, the timing of the disruption on Friday could cause particular inconvenience if it lasts, due to the need to roll positions from one contract to another.
Gold saw erratic moves in early London trading, with the gap between bids and offers briefly surging amid thin liquidity. US crude and palm oil on the Bursa Malaysia exchange were also affected. Friday is the expiry day for gasoline and diesel futures that can be settled with delivery of the actual physical fuel, adding a further potential complication for some traders.
Lost Liquidity
Others reported that volumes had shifted onto alternative platforms as liquidity and price transparency evaporated.