BREAKING NEWS: CME has HALTED ALL ELECTRONIC TRADING @ 08.24 20:34
by John Galt
johngaltfla.com
From Bloomberg and numerous other sources, all electronic trading has been halted on the CME and GLOBEX electronic platforms.
Perhaps this is the first shot across the bow of the mighty US via the great hacker war or is it worse perhaps that the CME is trying to block trades which might profit America’s enemies?
Time will tell and we will find out more soon.
UPDATE 09:48 ET…
This story from Bloomberg appears to attempt to mollify the masses and make everyone feel better about a mysterious “glitch”….
CME Halts Electronic Trade on Futures From Oil to S&P 500
<excerpted>
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange halted electronic futures trading due to technical issues, affecting contracts from U.S. stock-indexes to Treasuries, oil, gold and copper traded on CME Group Inc. (CME)’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. Trading will open at 9 p.m. Chicago time, the bourse said in a later update. Dozens of commodities from corn to West Texas Intermediate crude change hands on the all-electronic Globex platform that begins on Sunday nights in the U.S., as well as contracts on interest rates and stock indexes.
“The biggest problem you might have is with some of the agricultural products because people rely on it quite heavily,” Jonathan Barratt, the chief investment officer at Ayers Alliance Securities in Sydney, said by phone today. “You’re taking away a risk transfer mechanism that people rely on.”
Asset classes where there is also a spot market, such as precious metals, are less affected, Barratt said. Investors can trade spot gold, silver, platinum and palladium in London while those in China, the world’s largest consumer and producer, can trade bullion on both the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange.
The CME has mostly avoided the larger market structure breakdowns that plagued U.S. 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, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White has demanded infrastructure and procedural improvements as a way to restore investor confidence.
Funny how this happens as the pro-Russian forces appear to be ready to strike a major victory, the US appears to be ready to expand the war in the Middle East, Yemen’s government collapses in the face of Islamist rebels, and China is increasing its military stand against US Pacific forces in its region of influence. Nothing to see here, continue to hit the Wall Street Casino. Nothing could possibly go wrong like 1907, 1929, 1937, 1979, 1987, 1998, 2001, 2007-2008 now could it?