""Due to technical issues," CME Group Inc. said in a one-line email to clients, its futures and options "markets have been halted." The problem, it turned out, was the cooling system at a data-center complex in the suburban town of Aurora, Illinois, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Chicago, which serves as the main hub for trillions of dollars of derivatives traded each day. Inside, temperatures soared past 100F (38C) despite the frigid weather, according to people familiar with the matter."
"But before long, the magnitude of that fateful decision would become painfully clear. Despite a flurry of emails from CME assuring clients the problem would be fixed in the "near term," the malfunction persisted and brought down vast parts of the global financial system for hours. From Tokyo to London, and eventually New York, trading in everything from gold and oil to wagers on the direction of US interest rates came to an abrupt halt."
A cooling-system failure at a data-center complex in Aurora, Illinois caused internal temperatures to exceed 100F (38C) and halted CME futures and options trading. CME initially sent a brief notice that markets were halted and, anticipating a short outage, did not switch operations to a backup facility near New York City. The malfunction persisted, disrupting trading across Tokyo, London and New York and affecting instruments from gold and oil to interest-rate derivatives. Even after partial restoration, a CME trading platform remained offline for much of the US session. The event revealed reliance on a small set of dominant exchanges and raised concerns about contingency planning and third-party data-center dependence.
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