US stock futures were muted heading into the end of a holiday-shortened week, before the Chicago Mercantile Exchange halted trading on Friday due to a data center glitch.
The ongoing CME outage has disrupted live trading in futures and options across several markets, including bonds, equities, and commodities. The halt has impacted not just contracts for the likes of the S&P 500 (^GSPC), but also trade in US Treasurys and US crude oil, for several hours.
Before the freeze, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM=F) and the S&P 500 (ES=F) were both up 0.1%. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 (NQ=F) rose 0.2%.
When trading resumes on Friday, the Wall Street indexes will be staring down a losing month. A sharp cooldown in megacap tech names has led a decline for November, as investors reassessed how quickly AI-driven businesses can translate hype into sustainable profits.
By Wednesday’s close, both the Dow and S&P 500 were slightly lower for the month, on track to end a six-month winning stretch. The Nasdaq, down 2% so far, is on track to snap a seven-month run of gains.
But stocks have rebounded sharply this week as traders ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its meeting in December, less than two weeks away. Renewed faith in the AI trade provided a tailwind for tech names in the run-up to Thursday’s trading shutdown for the Thanksgiving holiday.
As November wraps up, analysts are beginning to develop predictions for the year ahead, with Deutsche bank setting a target for the S&P 500 of 8,000 by the end of 2026, though this number sits at the highest end of predictions. Other analysis from HSBC and JPMorgan indicates they expect the benchmark index to hover around the 7,500 mark.
Markets will close early on Friday, at 1 p.m. ET, with no major earnings or economic data releases on the docket.
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