operator

CME blamed the outage, which halted trading for more than 11 hours, on a cooling failure at a data centre in Chicago.

Global futures markets were thrown into chaos for several hours after CME Group, the world’s largest exchange operator, suffered one of its longest outages in years, halting trading across stocks, bonds, commodities and currencies.

By 13:35 GMT on Friday, trading in foreign exchange, stock and bond futures as well as other products had resumed, after having been knocked out for more than 11 hours because of an outage at an important data centre, according to LSEG data.

CME blamed the outage on a cooling failure at data centres run by CyrusOne, which said its Chicago-area facility had affected services for customers, including CME.

The disruption stopped trading in major currency pairs on CME’s EBS platform, as well as benchmark futures for West Texas Intermediate crude, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei, palm oil and gold, according to LSEG data.

‘A black eye’

Trading volumes have been thinned out this week by the United States Thanksgiving holiday, and with dealers looking to close positions for the end of the month, there was a risk of volatility picking up sharply later on, market participants said.

“It’s a black eye to the CME and probably an overdue reminder of the importance of market structure and how interconnected all these are,” Ben Laidler, head of equity strategy at Bradesco BBI, said.

“We complacently take for granted that much of the timing is frankly not great. It’s month-end, a lot of things get rebalanced.”

“Having said that, it could have been a lot worse; it’ll be a very low-volume day. If you’re going to have it, there would have been worse days to have a breakdown like this,” he said.

Futures are a mainstay of financial markets and are used by dealers, speculators and businesses wishing to hedge or hold positions in a wide range of underlying assets. Without these and other instruments, brokers were left flying blind, and many were reluctant to trade contracts with no live prices for hours on end.

“Beyond the immediate risk of traders being unable to close positions – and the potential costs that follow – the incident raises broader concerns about reliability,” said Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at trading platform IG.

A few European brokerages said earlier in the day they had been unable to offer trading in some products on certain futures contracts.

Biggest exchange operator

CME is the biggest exchange operator by market value and says it offers the widest range of benchmark products, spanning rates, equities, metals, energy, cryptocurrencies and agriculture.

Average daily derivatives volume was 26.3 million contracts in October, CME said earlier this month.

The CME outage on Friday comes more than a decade after the operator had to shut electronic trading for some agricultural contracts in April 2014 due to technical problems, which at the time sent traders back onto the floor.

More recently, in 2024, outages at LSEG and Switzerland’s exchange operator briefly interrupted markets.

CME’s own shares were up 0.4 percent in premarket trading.

A CHAIN of holiday parks in the UK has gone into administration, affecting 11 resorts across the country.

Cove UK is one of Britain’s biggest caravan park operators, behind Parkdean and Wyldecrest Parks.

Cove UK parks affected by the administration include Solway Holiday Park in Cumbria, which had space for 1,600 pitches, as well as Gwel an Mor Resort in Cornwall.

Eight holiday parks run by Argyll Holidays – with a combined 1,800 pitches – are also affected.

This is due to Argyll Holidays being bought by Cove UK for £100million in 2022.

This includes:

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• Drimsynie Holiday Village
• Hunters Quay Holiday Village
• Loch Awe Holiday Park
• Loch Eck Caravan Park
• Loch Eck Country Lodges
• Loch Lomond Holiday Park
• St Catherines Caravan Park
• Stratheck Holiday Park

Springwood Holiday Park, not part of Argyll Holidays, has also been affected.

Administrators Alvarez & Marsal Europe have been called in to Cove Communities Holiday Park UK Holdco Limited (HPUK).

This also includes three subsidiaries – Cove Communities Venture 2 Gwel an Mor OpCo Ltd, Cove Communities Venture 2 Solway OpCo Ltd, and Cove Communities Venture 2 Springwood OpCo Ltd.

Of Alvarez & Marsal Europe LLP, Adam Paxton, Rob Croxen and Ben Cairns have been appointed as joint administrators to Cove Communities Venture 2 Argyle OpCo Ltd, another subsidiary.

However, they have confirmed that holidaymakers will not be affected as the parks are currently closed for the season.

Adam Paxton, managing director, said: “As administrators, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition and maintain stability across the parks.

“We are working to ensure day-to-day operations continue with minimal disruption.

“Owners, residents and holidaymakers should not be impacted, and can contact the site managers with any questions they may have.”

They confirmed they would trade the company under the joint administrator’s supervision whilst “sale options are explored”.

The letter stated: “Please be assured that our priority is to ensure the continued smooth operation of the holiday parks and to keep homeowners and residents informed as matters progress.

“Going forward, all payments for site fees and any other services should no longer be made to the previous bank account.”

Seal Bay Resort in West Sussex is not being affected.

A Cove UK spokesperson told Sun Travel: “We confirm that administrators have been appointed to Cove Communities Holiday Park HoldCo Limited and its subsidiaries, and this affects a number of holiday parks across the UK.

“Seal Bay, our largest resort under the Cove UK group, is not part of the administration process and continues to trade as normal for our guests and owners.

“Our focus remains on serving our customers and executing our long-term strategy. We appreciate the continued support of our employees, owners and customers.”

Many caravan owners have been left gutted by the news, with one calling it an “end of an era”.

Another said: “Really worrying news. Biggest financial mistake we’ve made is buying a caravan there.”

Holiday parks have become popular for more than 100 years, with the first opening in 1894 on the Isle of Man.

However, many have since run into disrepair or been forced to close, following the rise in cheap package holidays abroad.

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Back in August, Baltic Wharf Caravan and Motorhome Club site, on Bristol’s harbourside, closed after 47 years.

And back in April Pontins Pakefield Holiday Village closed after 80 years.