FILE PHOTO: CME Group Inc logo is seen displayed in this illustration taken April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

(Reuters) -An outage at the world's biggest exchange operator CME Group on Friday halted trading on its popular currency platform and in futures spanning foreign exchange, commodities, Treasuries and stocks.

CME said in a statement the problem was a cooling issue at CyrusOne data centres, adding it was working to resolve it in the "near term" but offered no further details.

Here are some key facts about trade via the CME:

Futures are a mainstay of financial markets and used by dealers, speculators and businesses wishing to hedge or hold positions in a wide range of underlying assets.

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

CME offers futures and options on futures across commodities, interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrencies.

It was formed through the merger of major U.S. exchanges and now operates four key entities: the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and COMEX.

Trading is primarily electronic via CME Globex, which offers nearly 24-hour global access.

IMPACT BY ASSET CLASS:

ENERGY AND FUELS

The halt hits energy markets by freezing futures and options on key benchmarks such as NYMEX West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, Henry Hub natural gas, RBOB gasoline and NY Harbor ULSD heating oil.

According to CME, WTI Light Sweet Crude is the world's most liquid crude oil contract - more than 1 million WTI futures and options trade daily. CME says around 400,000 Henry Hub natural gas futures trade each day, and NY Harbor ULSD futures represent more than 180 million barrels a day of trading.

These contracts are vital for producers, refiners and traders to hedge price risk and manage supply-chain exposure.

AGRICULTURE - SOFT AND HARD COMMODITIES

The trading halt temporarily disrupted price discovery and hedging in agricultural markets, a core part of CME's offerings.

Contracts listed include, among others:

Grains & oilseeds: corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil

Softs: cotton and lumber

Livestock: live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs

Dairy: Class III milk and other dairy products

With trading paused, producers, processors and investors lose access to benchmark hedging tools.

METALS

CME's metals complex spans precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium) and base/ferrous metals including copper and others.

COMEX Gold futures are a key benchmark for global gold price discovery and portfolio hedging.

EQUITY INDICES

CME lists equity index futures and options linked to major benchmarks including the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, Dow Jones and Russell 2000, along with international indices such as Nikkei 225, plus E-mini and Micro E-mini variants.

These products are widely used by asset managers, hedge funds and proprietary traders for index-level hedging and tactical positioning.

INTEREST RATES, FIXED INCOME AND FOREIGN EXCHANGE

CME's interest-rate suite covers the U.S. dollar yield curve with benchmark futures and options on SOFR, Fed Funds, U.S. Treasury notes and bonds and other short-term rates.

Its FX complex offers listed futures and options on major and emerging-market currency pairs, alongside cash FX trading via the EBS platform, a major venue for spot and other cash FX products.

According to LSEG data, futures on 10-year U.S. Treasuries were among the benchmarks whose prices stopped updating during the halt, while prices on EBS also froze, temporarily complicating rate and currency hedging for banks, corporates and asset managers.

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

CME offers regulated cryptocurrency futures and options, including on Bitcoin and Ether, as well as related crypto indices and reference rates aimed at institutional users.

It is one of the main exchange-traded, centrally cleared routes for hedging and directional exposure in major digital assets.

WEATHER

CME runs a specialist weather derivatives market, with futures and options linked to Heating Degree Day (HDD) and Cooling Degree Day (CDD) indices and other temperature-based benchmarks for a range of U.S. and European locations.

Utilities, energy firms and other weather-sensitive businesses use these contracts to hedge revenues and costs against temperature swings.

(Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese and Noel John in BengaluruEditing by Ros Russell)