CME suspends Globex market due to technical issues disrupting trading

CME Group has suspended trading across its Globex platform after severe technical issues disrupted global markets. The outage occurred late on November 27 US time and lasted until Asian trading hours on November 28. The exchange confirmed that the outage was caused by a cooling failure at the CyrusOne data center.

As a result, Globex futures and options markets were forced to suspend operations. The disruption affected a wide range of contracts related to stocks, currencies, commodities and cryptocurrencies. CME said its support team acted quickly to investigate the issue. However, trading remained frozen while engineers worked to stabilize the system and prevent further risks.

Wide range of markets affected by power outages

The outage caused immediate disruption to several financial sectors. Stock index futures, including benchmarks tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, have stopped updating. The foreign exchange market was also affected by CME’s closure of its EBS trading platform. This is the core system for major currency pairs such as the dollar euro and the dollar yen.

Commodities were also hit. Traders reported that crude oil and palm oil contracts stopped moving during the suspension. Meanwhile, crypto traders also felt the impact. CME’s Bitcoin and Ethereum futures went offline during the outage. Because Globex operates almost 24 hours a day. This failure interrupted active sessions in Asia. That made the impact even worse. Especially since liquidity was already thin following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

Market reaction cautious during freeze

The trading halt caused concern across desks around the world. Without real-time price updates, traders struggled to manage their positions. One market participant described the situation as a “nightmare” with complete loss of visibility. Analysts warned that even short-term disruptions could negatively impact price discovery. When major benchmarks stop printing prices, the risk increases quickly.

When trading resumes, orders flood the system and rapid movements often ensue. Market strategist Tony Sycamore said Asia was already facing weak trading after a volatile month. The power outage only added to existing pressures. Many traders were planning to adjust their exposures by the end of the month. But suddenly I can’t access it anymore. As a result, some desks have chosen to wait completely until normal operations return.

CME is working towards full resumption of operations

CME confirmed that it has forwarded this issue to its technical team for urgent resolution. The exchange said pre-opening details will be shared once the system is stable. He also emphasized that protecting the integrity of the market remains a top priority. The EBS currency platform faced the same fate as Globex, further increasing its global impact. With key pricing tools taken offline, many companies were forced to suspend trading activity.

CyrusOne is a data center operator concerned with cooling issues. No public comments were made at the time of the failure. The incident now serves as a reminder of how deeply markets depend on uninterrupted infrastructure. Even a localized technical failure can freeze trillions of dollars of financial activity within minutes. As the system recovers, traders are now bracing for possible volatility once full trading resumes.