CME Glitch Halts FX, Commodities and Stock Futures, Triggers Market Uncertainty
Singapore, Nov 28 — A technical outage at the CME Group, one of the world’s largest exchange operators, disrupted trading on Friday across foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries, and stock futures, leaving traders navigating volatile conditions without live pricing.
CME reported that the outage originated from a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, which host critical trading infrastructure. The company said it was working to restore normal operations in the “near term” but offered no specific timeline. CyrusOne, a Dallas-based operator with over 55 data centers worldwide, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Among the impacted platforms was the widely used EBS foreign exchange platform, causing delays in trading currency pairs such as euro/dollar and dollar/yen. Prices for benchmark commodities and indices—including West Texas Intermediate crude, gold, palm oil, S&P 500 futures, and Treasury contracts—stalled as brokers temporarily withdrew products.
Traders were left improvising. Some relied on internal pricing models or alternate data sources, while others paused trading altogether. “It’s just a pain in the arse, to be honest,” said Christopher Forbes, Head of Asia and Middle East at CMC Markets, highlighting the unprecedented scope of the outage. “We’re now taking a lot of unnecessary risk to continue pricing, and the market is likely to see increased volatility at the open.”
CME’s futures and FX platforms are crucial for hedging, speculation, and price discovery across global markets. Disruptions in such core infrastructure can ripple quickly, affecting both institutional and retail participants. Analysts noted that while spot forex traders could use alternative venues, the outage underscored the fragility of centralized trading systems in highly interconnected markets.
Market watchers will be closely monitoring the restoration of services, as the incident may trigger short-term swings in commodities and equities once live pricing resumes.
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