U.S. Futures, Global Markets Mixed; CME Failure Disrupts Trading

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U.S. markets closed higher Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday and were indicated to rise before the outage on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange that hit futures trading. The halt hit U.S. Treasurys, equities as well as commodities and other asset classes.

CME Group is one of the world’s largest derivatives marketplaces, operating exchanges including the New York Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, and the Commodity Exchange, also known as Comex. U.S. markets reopen for a shortened session after the Thanksgiving holiday.

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—U.S. futures for the tech-heavy Nasdaq were indicated up 0.18%, with futures for Dow Jones Industrial Index and S&P up 0.11% and 0.1%, respectively, before the CME outage. Renewed expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts continued to buoy markets, with the probability of rate cuts rising from last week’s sub-30% low to 85%.

—In Asia, indexes were mixed at the close, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gaining 0.2% and the Chinese benchmark Shanghai Composite was up 0.3%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 0.3%.

—European indexes fell back in early trading after an initial rise, with Germany’s DAX down 0.2% and the continent-wide Stoxx 600 down 0.08%. The CAC 40 was down 0.05% after the latest French inflation print showed price growth held steady. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index was up 0.1% as traders continued to digest the announcement of government spending plans.

—The German 10-year Bund yield climbed by one basis point to 2.69% from 2.685%, while yields on U.K. government bonds are steady at 4.453%.

—U.S. Treasury yields were last indicated higher by two-three basis points across maturities but unusually wide spreads between bid and ask levels signal patchy trade amid technical issues at the CME. The 10-year Treasury yield was last indicated at bid-ask yield levels of 4.023% and 3.992%, respectively, according to Tradeweb.

—The dollar was little changed, remaining weak against a basket of currencies as trade remains thin due to Thursday’s U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and CME disruption. The DXY dollar index is last up marginally at 99.654. It hit a low of 99.406 on Thursday.

—Bitcoin continued its rally, trading above $91,450, recovering from recent lows of around $82,000 last week.

—Brent crude rose as traders await OPEC+’s meeting on Sunday and developments on peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. The international oil benchmark, which trades on the Intercontinental Exchange, rose 0.4% to $63.11 a barrel in early trading and is on track for a weekly gain of 1%. WTI futures were frozen due to CME disruption.

—Gold futures were also disrupted by the CME outage, with prices frozen at $4,221.30 a troy ounce.

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• U.S. Futures, Global Markets Mixed; CME Failure Disrupts Trading