SYDNEY, Aug 25 — The Chicago Mercantile Exchange halted electronic futures trading due to technical issues, affecting contracts from US stock-indexes to gold and copper traded on CME Group Inc’s Globex platform.
CME Group, the world’s largest futures market, suspended the start of trading on all of its Globex electronic-trading markets except for Malaysian equity-index derivatives, according to its website. Dozens of commodities from corn to natural gas change hands on the all-electronic Globex platform that begins on Sunday nights in the US, as well as contracts on interest rates, foreign exchange and equity indexes.
A phone call and voicemail to Chris Grams, a Chicago-based press officer at the bourse, was not immediately returned.
The CME has mostly avoided the larger market structure breakdowns that plagued US equity venues over the last five years, though a futures contract traded on its platform was identified by regulators as helping precipitate the flash crash in May 2010. In the stock market, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White has demanded infrastructure and procedural improvements as a way to restore investor confidence.
CME halted trading for some futures contracts for more than 90 minutes on April 8 due to “technical issues.” The error prevented futures and options transactions in products including corn, wheat, cattle and hogs. The Chicago-based company’s largest revenue-producing contracts such as interest-rate and stock-index futures weren’t affected. — Bloomberg
