Just a day after the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) set record daily volumes in its contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) Globex trading platform, all Nymex contracts listed on the system went dark for an hour Thursday due to a “software issue” in the Globex system, the CME told NGI.

“There was a software issue with all of the Nymex products on Globex,” said Allan Schoenberg, a CME spokesman. “The market was halted at 1:28 Central time and trading resumed at 2:30 Central time. Everything is back up and running minus the November crude contract, because that expired Thursday. We don’t know why it occurred but [we] will dissecting it over the next couple of days.”

Nymex reported earlier in the day that it set daily volume records for total energy, crude oil, natural gas and heating oil futures contracts traded on Globex on Wednesday. Total Nymex energy futures reached 411,265 contracts, topping the 385,471 contracts traded on October 4. Crude oil futures contracts totaled 215,579 contracts, surpassing the 197,737 contracts traded on October 17. Natural gas futures traded a record 48,235, exceeding the 37,067 contracts traded on October 17. Heating oil futures reached 24,369 contracts, surpassing the 22,093 contracts traded on October 9.

Nymex launched its physically settled futures contracts for trading on CME Globex during regular open outcry trading hours on September 5, following its initial offering of financially settled, standard-sized and Nymex miNY energy futures contracts for trading on Globex on June 12. Access to electronic trading of Nymex products is available virtually 24 hours a day on the system.

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