A technical failure at CME Group this Wednesday led to a trading halt of over half an hour for natural gas and metals futures markets. This marks another systemic trading disruption for CME, following an abnormal trading suspension for benchmark natural gas futures a month ago. The timing is particularly sensitive as it coincides with the expiration date of the March natural gas futures contract, making its market impact significant.
At 12:15 North American time on February 25, CME announced the suspension of trading for metals and natural gas futures and options on CME Globex. Approximately 25 minutes later, restart schedules were released: the natural gas futures market resumed at 12:50, while metals futures trading was delayed until 13:45.
CME also stated that all orders placed for that day, including Good-Till-Date (GTD) orders marked for the current date, would be canceled. Only confirmed Good-Till-Canceled (GTC) orders would remain active.
Following the outage, Bloomberg data showed that from 2:00 AM Beijing time on February 26, trading data for COMEX gold, silver, and copper futures, as well as NYMEX natural gas futures, sequentially showed "missing" values. Natural gas futures trading resumed after 3:00 AM Beijing time, with prices quickly rising over 3% to hit an intraday high of $3.017.
Nicky Shiels, Metal Strategist at MKS PAMP SA, commented that a market "freeze" just before the close occurred at an "extremely unfortunate time," affecting all participants who rely on futures for pricing and hedging.
Timeline of the Failure: Four System Alerts Issued Within 25 Minutes
The sequence of system alerts posted on CME's website clearly outlines the incident response. At 12:11 Central Time on the 25th, the CME Global Command Center (GCC) issued an alert acknowledging a technical issue affecting metals and natural gas futures and options and initiated an investigation. Four minutes later, at 12:15, CME formally announced that trading in these markets had been "paused." At 12:33, CME released an operational notice detailing the aforementioned order handling procedures prior to market restart. By 12:40, CME provided a specific restart time for the natural gas futures market. A separate notification for the metals futures market followed later, setting its opening approximately 55 minutes after natural gas. CME did not specify the exact cause of this technical failure.
Second Trading Halt Within a Month, Compounded by Natural Gas Contract Expiry
The timing of this failure is particularly critical. The March U.S. natural gas futures contract expired on February 25. The trading disruption directly interfered with the normal settlement process for contracts nearing delivery, creating additional operational uncertainty for holders. This incident represents the second trading halt for CME's natural gas futures market in approximately one month. According to previous reports, on January 27, during a record price surge for natural gas futures, CME's New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) implemented an abnormal two-minute trading halt at market close. This action resulted in a deviation in the settlement price, confusing traders who were already tense due to demand expectations wildly fluctuating from cold weather. Two trading disruptions within a month have significantly heightened market concerns regarding the stability of CME's trading systems. Nicky Shiels' remarks reflect widespread market apprehension: any failure in trading infrastructure during critical price discovery windows can cause substantial impact for institutional investors using futures for pricing and risk management.
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