When Markets Go Dark: The Story of Major Exchange Outages

CME Group, the largest exchange operator, recently faced a long outage impacting trades in various sectors. This incident adds to a history of global exchange outages caused by software glitches, hardware failures, and cybersecurity threats, affecting markets and investor trust.

The CME Group, renowned as the world's largest exchange operator, suffered a significant outage on its currency platform this Friday, halting futures trading in sectors from foreign exchange and commodities to Treasuries and stocks.

Beginning during early Asian market hours, the outage persisted until U.S. morning trade, marking one of the most prolonged disruptions in years, according to market observers. Such outages, often due to tech glitches or cyber threats, have historically disrupted market stability and eroded investor confidence, especially as trading has transitioned from physical floors to rapid electronic systems.

This event is part of a broader pattern of global exchange failures. Recent incidents include breakdowns in Moscow, Switzerland, and London stock exchanges, each underlining vulnerabilities within financial markets reliant on technology.

(With inputs from agencies.)