Every trader has a plan for a bad fill. Very few have a plan for the exchange itself disappearing. On February 25, 2026, CME Group's Globex platform halted metals and natural gas futures and options in the middle of a critical expiry window. It was not a one-off: it was the second major CME outage in three months, following a data-center failure in November 2025 that took down equities too.
What happened on February 25
According to Finance Magnates, CME's Global Command Center flagged the problem at 12:11 p.m. Central Time, and four minutes later the exchange confirmed a full trading halt across metals and natural gas futures and options. Bloomberg reported CME said the gas halt lasted about 50 minutes for futures and 35 minutes for options, citing technical issues.
Natural gas came back around 12:50 p.m. Gold and copper on Globex did not reopen until around 1:45 p.m., per Finance Magnates. CME did not publicly detail a cause beyond "technical issues" in the coverage we reviewed.
Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP, told reporters the glitch "erases confidence over liquidity and price discovery at a time when the market has been contending with a market dysfunctioning given the wild price swings," as quoted by Finance Magnates.
A pattern, not an accident
- November 28, 2025: CME halted futures and options trading after a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centers, affecting Globex, the EBS FX platform and other markets, CNBC reported. Finance Magnates reported brokers were left "flying blind."
- Late January 2026: Bloomberg reported that gas traders were angered when NYMEX imposed an extraordinary two-minute halt during the market close, which skewed the settlement price.
- February 25, 2026: the metals and gas halt, described by Bloomberg as the second major disruption in a month for gas. Quantum Commodity Intelligence headlined it as a "third outage."
Yahoo Finance coverage framed the incident as a test of CME's trading reliability at a time when its valuation premium faces scrutiny.
Why NQ and ES traders should care
February's halt did not hit equity index futures. November's did. The lesson is not about gas or gold. It is that a single venue runs almost all US index futures trading, so when Globex has a problem, there is nowhere else to go for ES or NQ.
- Open orders. Halts can cancel resting orders. Bracket and OCO orders held by your platform may behave differently from exchange-held orders when the market reopens.
- Stops don't protect you during a halt. If the market is closed, your stop cannot fill. You can reopen through your stop.
- Prop and funded accounts. Drawdown rules usually still apply to the price at reopen, whether or not you could act.
- Expiry and roll days. Outages during quarterly index roll weeks would be especially disruptive.
The other side
To be fair to CME: Globex handles enormous volume, the company has reported record activity month after month in 2026, and it restored trading within hours in each case described here. The question is whether a run of three events in about three months suggests a systemic issue, or bad luck. CME's public explanations so far have been brief.
Our take
Opinion: Exchange risk is the risk retail traders plan for least. As CME pushes toward 24/7 trading in more products, its systems will have fewer quiet hours for maintenance, and incidents like these deserve fuller public post-mortems than "technical issues." For traders, the practical takeaway is simple: size so that a frozen market is survivable.
What traders can do
- Know where CME posts status alerts (the Global Command Center system alerts page) and check it first when quotes freeze.
- Understand which of your orders live at the exchange and which live on your platform or broker server.
- Avoid maximum size around expiries and rolls, when an outage would hurt most.
- Know your broker's and prop firm's policy on trades affected by exchange halts.
Key takeaways
- Feb 25, 2026: CME halted metals and natural gas futures and options from 12:15 p.m. CT; gas was down about 50 minutes, metals longer.
- The halt hit an expiry window and came about 48 hours before COMEX first notice day.
- It followed a November 2025 data-center outage that also halted equity index markets.
- Stops cannot fill in a halted market. Size accordingly.
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FAQ
What happened at CME on February 25, 2026?
A technical issue halted CME Globex metals and natural gas futures and options starting around 12:11-12:15 p.m. CT. Gas futures resumed after about 50 minutes; gold and copper reopened around 1:45 p.m.
Were NQ and ES affected?
Not on February 25, based on the reports we reviewed. Equity index futures were affected in the November 28, 2025 data-center outage.
Will my stop-loss fill during an exchange halt?
No order can fill while a market is halted. When it reopens, price may be beyond your stop, and some resting orders may have been cancelled.
Loomi.Ai provides educational market research, not financial advice. Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss, and backtested results are historical and do not guarantee future returns.
Sources
- CME Restarts Metals, Gas Futures After Glitch Halts Trading, Bloomberg
- CME Breaks Down Again: And This Time It Happened at the Worst Possible Moment, Finance Magnates
- CME halts gas, metals futures in third outage, Quantum Commodity Intelligence
- CME restarts gas and metals futures trading after glitch, MINING.COM
- CME halts FX, commodities, futures trading after data center issue, CNBC
- CME Outage Tests Trading Reliability As Valuation Premium Faces Fresh Scrutiny, Yahoo Finance
- Futures Settle: After CME Halts Trading - Again - March Natural Gas Trends Higher into Expiry, Natural Gas Intelligence