Cooling issue in data center halts futures market

The day after Thanksgiving was supposed to be a calm day for American traders. Due to an issue in a data center, that is turning out differently. Some of the products on the futures markets of the CME Group cannot be traded. In France, farmers are quite far along with their autumn work. The corn is almost harvested and the wheat has been sown, as indicated by the new figures from FranceAgriMer. In Brazil, growers have been a bit later with sowing soybeans, but that seems to have little effect on the yield. The December contract for wheat on the Matif closed yesterday €0.25 lower at €189 per tonne. The CBoT was closed yesterday due to the American holiday Thanksgiving Day. Today (Friday, November 28), the American exchange should be open again. However, a technical issue is preventing trading of the futures market products from the CME Group. Due to a cooling problem in the CyrusOne data centers, our markets are currently closed. The support department is working to resolve the issue shortly and will inform customers about the details of pre-market trading hours as soon as they are available, it reads on the CME Group website. In addition to products on the CBoT, there are issues with West Texas Intermediate crude oil, futures contracts for government bonds, S&P 500 futures, and futures market contracts for palm oil on the exchange in Malaysia. Gold also made strange jumps on the London exchange, which are likely related to the problems at CME and their electronic trading platform Globex. Exciting settlementWhile writing this article, it is still unclear when the issue can be resolved. A silver lining is that it is the day after Thanksgiving. This is typically a quiet day on which the American government has no major reports or other important data scheduled for publication. However, it is an exciting day for traders with open positions in the gasoline and diesel futures market. This is a contract with physical settlement, and today is the expiration day for the December contract of these products. Traders with open positions who wanted to exit today may have to deliver or receive up to 42,000 gallons (approximately 159 cubic meters) of gasoline or diesel if the issue lasts long. Record soybean harvest expected in BrazilOther news also comes from a financial institution, but this time from the Brazilian bank Itaú BBA. They have made a new estimate for the Brazilian soybean harvest and predict a record harvest of 178 million tonnes. The USDA was slightly more conservative in the last Wasde report with an estimate of 175 million tonnes, and the last harvest for the 2024/25 season was estimated at 171.5 million tonnes. According to Itaú BBA, part of the larger soybean harvest is due to an expansion of the area planted. The weather has not been favorable for sowing soybeans in Brazil in the past few weeks. Due to drought in one region and overly wet conditions in another, some of the soybeans have been sown too late. A later sowing date is not directly detrimental to soybean yield. However, for the subsequent maize crop after soybeans, the later-sown soybeans may have an unfavorable effect. Nevertheless, the bank expects a maize harvest in Brazil of 138 to 139 million tonnes. The USDA's last forecast was 131 million tonnes. In France, the corn harvest is nearly complete, as indicated by the new figures from FranceAgriMer. 99% of the harvest is in, compared to 97% this week last year. Sowing of wheat is also nearly finished. 98% of the planned area has been sown, compared to 93% this week last year and 94% of the five-year average. According to the French government agency, 99% of the planned area for winter barley has now been sown.