CME Outage Paralyzes Global Markets as Data Center Failure Halts Trading
A cooling system failure at a CyrusOne data center triggered a cascade of disruptions across financial markets Friday. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Globex platform went offline, freezing price discovery for equities, commodities, and derivatives worldwide. Traders described the environment as 'flying blind' during critical post-holiday positioning.
The outage struck during heightened volatility. November's whipsawing equity markets—already grappling with Fed policy uncertainty and tech valuation concerns—lost their primary pricing mechanism. S&P 500, Nasdaq, and crude oil futures froze alongside Treasury instruments, forcing desks to operate without benchmark references.
Liquidity evaporated as the malfunction extended to currency platforms like EBS. The timing proved disastrous for traders rolling monthly contracts, leaving billions in exposure unhedged. 'This wasn't just a glitch—it was a systemic seizure,' remarked one veteran floor broker as contingency protocols failed.
