CME Suspends Globex Markets as Technical Issues Disrupt Trading

CME Group temporarily suspended trading across its Globex platform after a major technical issue disrupted global markets. The halt hit late on November 27 in U.S. time and continued into Asian trading hours on November 28. The exchange confirmed that the outage was caused by a cooling failure at a CyrusOne data center. 

As a result, futures and options markets on Globex were forced to pause. The disruption affected a wide range of contracts tied to stocks, currencies, commodities and crypto. CME said its support teams moved quickly to investigate the issue. However, trading remained frozen while engineers worked to stabilize systems and prevent further risk.

Wide Range of Markets Affected by the Outage

The halt caused immediate disruption across several financial sectors. Stock index futures, including benchmarks tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 stopped updating. Foreign exchange markets were also affected after CME shut down its EBS trading platform. It’s a core system for major currency pairs like the dollar-euro and dollar-yen.

Commodities took a hit as well. Traders reported that crude oil and palm oil contracts stopped moving during the interruption. Meanwhile, crypto traders felt the impact too. As Bitcoin and Ethereum futures on CME went offline during the halt. Because Globex operates nearly around the clock. The outage interrupted active sessions in Asia. That worsened the impact. Especially since liquidity was already thin due to the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.

Market Reaction Turns Cautious During the Freeze

The trading halt triggered concern across global desks. Without live price updates, traders struggled to manage positions. One market participant described the situation as a “nightmare” due to the total loss of visibility. Analysts warned that even short disruptions can damage price discovery. When key benchmarks stop printing prices, risk builds up quickly. 

Once trading resumes, sharp moves often follow as orders rush back into the system. Market strategist Tony Sycamore noted that Asia was already facing a slow session after a volatile month. The outage only added to existing pressure. Many traders had planned to adjust exposure before the month-end. But suddenly lost access. As a result, some desks chose to sit out entirely until normal operations returned.

CME Works to Restore Full Operations

CME confirmed that it transferred the issue to technical teams for urgent resolution. The exchange stated that pre-open details would be shared as soon as systems stabilize. It also stressed that protecting market integrity remained the top priority. The EBS currency platform faced the same fate as Globex, further increasing the global impact. With major pricing tools offline, many firms had no choice but to pause trading activity.

CyrusOne, the data center operator tied to the cooling issue. It had not released a public comment at the time of the outage. Currently, the incident serves as a reminder of how deeply markets rely on uninterrupted infrastructure. Even a localized technical failure can freeze trillions of dollars in financial activity within minutes. As systems recover, traders now brace for possible volatility once full trading resumes.