Black Friday Trading Halted by Tech Outage as Markets Eye Weekly Gains
Despite a temporary halt in trading due to a technical issue, U.S. stock futures were trending upward on Black Friday, with major indexes poised to close out their strongest week since June.
Trading was temporarily suspended on CME Group (CME) exchanges for stocks, bonds, and commodities, disrupting the start of what is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Futures contracts tied to the Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average had been up 0.2%, 0.1%, and 0.1%, respectively, before the disruption.
According to a company alert, the outage stemmed from a “cooling issue” at CyrusOne data centers. CME Group stated that “BrokerTec US Actives and BrokerTec EU are now open,” but other markets remained halted. Shares of CME Group were down roughly 1% in premarket trading.
Prior to the halt, WTI crude futures, the benchmark for U.S. oil, rose 0.7% to $59.10 per barrel, while gold futures gained 0.5% to $2,042 per ounce. Trading in bonds resumed, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipping to 3.99% from Wednesday’s close.
Notably, Bitcoin remained largely unaffected, trading in a narrow range around $36,000, and the U.S. dollar index edged up 0.1% to 103.81.
The positive momentum follows a four-day winning streak for the three major stock indexes, which closed higher on Wednesday. Markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving, and will close early today, at 1 p.m. ET and 2 p.m. ET for stocks and bonds, respectively.
Through the first three days of the holiday-shortened week, the Nasdaq has climbed 4.2%, while the S&P 500 and Dow have increased by approximately 3.2% and 2.6%, respectively. Despite this weekly surge, all three indexes are currently on track to finish November with monthly losses: the Nasdaq is down 2.2%, the S&P 500 is down 0.4%, and the Dow is down 0.3%.
Retail stocks showed strength in premarket trading, with shares of Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Amazon (AMZN), and Macy’s (M) all pointing higher as shoppers prepare for Black Friday deals.
Robinhood Markets (HOOD) continued its upward trajectory, rising another 1% before the bell after soaring nearly 11% on Wednesday following news of its expansion into prediction markets.
Conversely, Jefferies Financial Group (JEF) saw a 1% decline after a Financial Times report revealed the SEC is investigating the firm’s disclosures regarding its exposure to the now-defunct First Brands.
Alphabet (GOOGL) shares also rose 1% in premarket trading, building on a recent rebound fueled by the unveiling of its advanced Gemini 3 AI model. The Google parent company recently surpassed Microsoft (MSFT) in market capitalization, reaching $1.76 trillion, and is nearing the $2 trillion mark alongside Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL).
