CME Group operations halted due to a data center failure

Source: CritpoTendencia Original Title: Operations at CME Group Halt Due to Data Center Outage Original Link: Options and futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, or CME Group, was suspended this Friday. The cause was a failure at a data center on which the group’s electronic trading platform, Globex, depends. This affects areas such as the Forex market, stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and commodities.

According to specialized reports, this interruption is similar to one that occurred in 2019, which lasted for hours following a technical malfunction. Now, a new outage is causing frustration among traders faced with the prospect of a lost trading day.

This exchange is one of the most important in the world for derivatives. In fact, millions of contracts tracking the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and Nasdaq 100 are traded every week. These are traded around the clock on the aforementioned exchange.

According to a CME Group spokesperson, the suspension of operations is related to cooling issues at CyrusOne’s data centers, a key provider for the exchange. The representative did not provide an estimated timeframe for the resumption of activities.

Among the affected areas is also the trading of U.S. Treasury bond futures. It’s worth noting that bonds from other markets, such as Europe, were not affected, as they are traded on different platforms.

CME Group Suspension Causes Confusion Among Traders

According to experts, for traders with open positions this is an uncomfortable situation. However, they point out that the confusion likely hasn’t stopped others, who are moving their capital to alternative platforms. The reality is that a huge amount of liquidity is evaporating as a result of the outage.

“We have lost one of the market’s biggest sources of liquidity. This increases the risk of exaggerated moves in the event of a major event,” warns a market analyst. One factor adding pressure is that most U.S. markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving.

This further increases traders’ frustration as they thirst for trading activity. From an optimistic perspective, no major economic announcements are expected in the U.S. on Friday. Likewise, there will be no statements from Federal Reserve members due to the usual information blackout preceding monetary policy meetings.

The temporary halt of CME Group operations particularly impacts the world of cryptocurrencies. It’s worth noting that numerous contracts based on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other major tokens are opened daily on that platform.

As is well known, the crypto world has much lower liquidity compared to other markets. This makes the CME shutdown a far more delicate issue for virtual currencies.