Quote from Totalizator:
just a quick heads up to those of you trading nymex contracts.
The halt was due to RBOB.. unl;eaded gas contract being down limit. .. the rules state that if any.. yes ANY gas or energy product is down limit then the entire complex of energy futures and some options are also halted for 5 minutes.. so if ehtanol is down or up limit.. then crude will halt as well for 5 minutes.
Piggybacking on Total's comment and from WSJ.com:
CME Group Inc. halted trading in crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures for the first time in more than two years due to a trading limit, amid high price volatility in the energy markets.
A note from the exchange said gasoline contracts fell to their 25-cent daily price limit at 12:06 p.m. EDT Wednesday, triggering circuit breakers on CME's electronic Globex trading platform that resulted in a five-minute delay in trading for all three energy-futures contracts. Trading resumed at 12:11 p.m. EDT.
June reformulated gasoline blendstock, or RBOB, was recently down 26.09 cents, or 7.7%, to $3.1188 a gallon on the Nymex following the restart. Light, sweet crude for June delivery was down $3.76, or 3.6%, to $100.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange was down $3.54, or 3%, to $114.09 a barrel. Brent trading wasn't halted.
The exchange reopened the affected contracts with double the daily price limits. Price limits for crude oil moved to $20, heating oil to 50 cents and RBOB to 50 cents.