CME futures trading came to a complete standstill Friday morning after a cooling system failure at CyrusOne data centers disrupted operations. The world’s largest derivatives marketplace halted trading across multiple asset classes, affecting billions in daily trading volume.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced the issue around 2:40 AM GMT. A cooling malfunction at the CHI1 facility in the Chicago area caused the widespread outage. Consequently, trading stopped for futures, options, and foreign exchange markets operating on the Globex platform.
Multiple major markets faced disruptions. Futures prices for WTI crude oil, 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and the S&P 500 stopped updating by 7:20 AM GMT. Additionally, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei, palm oil, and gold futures showed no price refreshes. The EBS foreign exchange platform also went down, impacting major currency pairs like euro/dollar and dollar/yen.
The EBS platform typically trades almost $60 billion daily. Therefore, the outage left many forex traders searching for alternative venues. However, spot forex traders found it easier to execute deals elsewhere compared to futures traders.
CyrusOne operates more than 55 data centers across the United States, Europe, and Japan. The company’s spokesperson confirmed the chiller plant failure affected multiple cooling units. Engineering teams immediately deployed temporary cooling equipment to supplement permanent systems.
“Our teams are working around the clock to restore normal operations as quickly and safely as possible,” the CyrusOne representative stated. They successfully restarted several chillers at limited capacity. Moreover, specialized mechanical contractors arrived on-site to assist with repairs.
The outage forced brokers to make difficult decisions. CMC Markets pulled trading in numerous commodity contracts. Furthermore, the company switched data sources or relied on internal calculations for pricing. Christopher Forbes, CMC’s head of Asia and Middle East, called it unprecedented in his 20-year career.
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The CME Group has officially halted global futures trading due to “data center cooling concerns.” On the surface, this is an unfortunate infrastructure failure on a… pic.twitter.com/VUEMNs6Ayc— ⚛️Erez (@ErezShapira) November 28, 2025
“We’re now taking unnecessary risk here to continue pricing,” Forbes explained. “My guess is the market will be volatile on the open.” Similarly, Saxo Bank informed clients it couldn’t offer contracts for difference on futures and indexes. XTB also halted trading for various U.S. indexes and commodity futures.
Futures serve as a mainstay of financial markets. Dealers, speculators, and businesses use them to hedge positions across various assets. CME typically processes 26.3 million contracts daily, according to October data.
Fortunately, the timing minimized disruption. Trading volumes remained thin following the Thanksgiving holiday. “If it has to happen, today is probably the best day,” noted Michael Brown from Pepperstone. Nevertheless, Asian and European traders faced more direct impacts during their active sessions.
This isn’t CME’s first technical challenge. Back in 2014, technical problems shut down electronic trade for agricultural contracts, sending traders back to physical trading floors. More recently, exchanges worldwide experienced similar issues. Last year, Switzerland’s SIX exchange temporarily halted equity and bond trading due to data problems.
Interestingly, October saw record cryptocurrency activity on CME before this outage. Average daily volume reached 26.3 million contracts. Additionally, CME plans to launch new spot-quoted futures for XRP and Solana next month. The exchange also intends to offer round-the-clock crypto trading starting in 2026.
In conclusion, CME futures operations remain suspended as engineers work continuously toward full recovery. Traders anticipate potential volatility once markets reopen following this significant disruption.
