US oil futures back over $100 a barrel as Globex trading platform fails

US WTI oil futures open Tuesday’s trading session back over $100 a barrel after a failure of CME Group’s Globex electronic oil trading platform shut out scores of traders on Monday afternoon in America and forced all trading onto the NYMEX floor.

Latest WTI Oil Price

US Light crude oil futures for March 2012 delivery was trading at $100.69 a barrel, 08.01 GMT today in electronic trading on the NYMEX.

The US contract settled $2.24, or 2.3 percent, higher at $100.91 a barrel yesterday evening.

Globex Trading Platform Failure

Electronic trading of US oil futures on the NYMEX halted for more than an hour on Monday afternoon during one of the busiest periods of the day, forcing brokers to sprint for the open outrcy pits as prices settled.

In what some traders said was one of the most disruptive glitches since parallel electronic trading was launched about six years ago, the CME Group’s Globex platform froze at 2:04 p.m. EST (1904 GMT), half an hour before the close. Some market watchers blamed the outage for a 50-cent jump in crude oil prices.

Trading resumed at 3:15 p.m., after the exchange had cancelled all daily orders. The CME calculated settlement prices based on deals from the NYMEX trading floor, which has continued to operate despite the fact that well over 95% of all trades are now done electronically.

Such trading glitches, while rare, have occasionally halted trade for brief periods in the past, distressing traders but otherwise leaving little lasting impact. But Monday’s was the first time that activity had been stopped during the period where prices are settled for the day, some said.

“It’s not that halts in trading never occur, I think today’s may have the first time it really happened when the settlement prices were being wrapped up, and it made for a bit of uncertainty. The CME cancelled orders in the system, and that was the first time I had to deal with that.” said Gene McGillian , analyst, Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

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US oil futures back over $100 a barrel as Globex trading platform fails