Futures Frenzy: CME Group's Outage Shakes Global Markets

After a disruption at CME Group halted trading in futures worldwide, Wall Street's indexes prepared to open higher. The outage, caused by a cooling issue, affected key stock futures. Market players anticipate low volumes post-Thanksgiving and warn of potential volatility spikes due to reduced liquidity.

In a dramatic turn of events, Wall Street's principal indexes were poised for a higher opening on Friday after futures trading resumed. This followed an unprecedented outage at CME Group that brought the trading of currencies, commodities, and equities futures to a global halt.

The disruption was attributed to a cooling issue at CME's CyrusOne data centers, first reported Thursday night. Despite the setback, Dow E-minis climbed 80 points, the S&P 500 E-minis gained 13.25 points, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis rose by 81.5 points as the market awaited the official opening bell.

Market analysts, including Ben Laidler of Bradesco BBI, viewed the incident as a stark reminder of the critical nature of market structure and interconnections. The outage, occurring at the month's end, added complexity to market rebalancing efforts. Although no major upheaval was anticipated, traders advised caution as light volumes and holiday-shortened trading weeks could trigger volatility spikes.

(With inputs from agencies.)