The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) gradually resumed trading on Friday after a cooling system at a CyrusOne data center malfunctioned. The failure temporarily halted futures, options, and currency markets, affecting traders worldwide.
At around 8:30 a.m. local time (2:30 p.m. Amsterdam time), trading in futures and options on stocks resumed in full. Bonds and metals also resumed trading after the break, according to FactSet data. Trading in individual stocks remained active during the premarket phase. “All CME Group markets are open and trading,” a spokesperson told CNBC.
The disruptions began earlier in the day when a cooling system malfunctioned at CyrusOne’s CHI1 data center in the Chicago area. CME representatives reported that it could take some time before movements in the affected contracts would be visible again after the malfunction was resolved. The Globex futures and options markets, the EBS currency platform, and BMD markets were all affected.
Cooling critical for data centers
A spokesperson for CyrusOne, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, said the company responded proactively to a problem with the cooling system at the CHI1 facility. “On November 27, our CHI1 facility experienced a chiller plant failure affecting multiple cooling units,” the spokesperson said. “Our engineering teams, along with specialized mechanical contractors, are on-site working to restore full cooling capacity.”
According to recent market data, up to 40 percent of data center energy consumption can be spent on cooling. Chips must remain within certain temperatures; otherwise, they will not function properly or will shut themselves down. CyrusOne had restarted multiple chillers with limited capacity and deployed temporary cooling equipment.
This is not the first time CME has had to shut down electronic trading. In 2014, technical problems shut down part of trading on CME’s Globex electronic system, affecting agricultural contracts. Last year, trading in stocks, bonds, and exchange-traded funds was also temporarily halted in Switzerland after the SIX exchange experienced problems distributing data.
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