Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, COMMODITY FUTURES—CFTC stays listing of NYMEX crude oil futures contract, halts continuous trading, (Jul 10, 2026)

By Rebecca E. Hoffman, J.D.

The CFTC is not deciding with this order whether the listing is compliant with the CEA but is instituting proceedings to figure that out.

In a July 9 order, the CFTC instructed the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. to demonstrate that a certain crude oil futures contract it had self-certified actually complies with relevant provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act, staying the listing effective immediately (In the Matter of the 10-Barrel WTI Crude Oil futures contract self-certified by the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. under Commission Regulation 40.2 (CFTC July 9, 2026)).

The Commission also directed NYMEX to change the terms of the contract such that it will no longer be traded continuously. It observed that this particular listing is “unlike NYMEX’s other crude oil futures contracts” in that it may be traded during nights, weekends, and holidays.

In a press release, CFTC chair Michael S. Selig noted that “‘[t]he CFTC is in the midst of examining whether 24/7 trading of futures contracts on various asset classes is consistent with our statutory Core Principles.’” He cautioned that “‘CME’s decision to disregard the Commission’s effort to undertake a reasoned analysis of the critical issues at stake is wholly inappropriate and necessitates Commission action to stay the certification.’” CME Group, Inc., acquired NYMEX Holdings, Inc. in 2008.

24/7 trading. NYMEX filed a self-certification pursuant to Section 5c(c)(1) of the CEA and Commission Regulation 40.2 in order to list the “10-Barrel WTI” contract, which references the spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil. This contract is “designed to trade twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, except for limited maintenance windows—including weekend and holiday periods during which the underlying physical crude oil market is not assessed,” the CFTC explained.

“Under Commission Regulation 40.2, the certifying entity bears the burden of demonstrating compliance with the Act and the Commission’s regulations thereunder,” the order said. The Commission can stay the listing if the certification might be false, or to alter the terms and conditions of the contract, and it is doing both here. The order is not a ruling on whether the certification is false but is a means of keeping trading to traditional hours until the Commission can make that determination.

Comments pending. The CFTC recently issued a request for comment, seeking responses to a list of questions related to how markets might respond if standard futures contracts were traded at all hours. For example, how might prices behave during weekends and at other traditionally non-trading times, and what might be required to adapt to this? And if trading were to occur when traditional payment systems do not operate, how might a DCM or DCO “ensure robust margin call and settlement processes”?

Under the CEA’s core principles, contracts must be designed so as to avoid manipulation and price distortion, among other things, and the request for comment is seeking to determine whether continuously traded oil futures could comply with the principles and protect traders.

“[T]he Commission has declined to treat the continuous trading of physically delivered energy commodities as a settled question,” the order explained, noting that this contract “would produce prices around the clock, including over the weekend—precisely when futures liquidity in a 24/7 context would be thinnest,” making the price “vulnerable to manipulation and less likely to reflect the value of the underlying commodity.” The price would impact benchmarks such as refiners and transporters while they are closed and, in turn, potentially influence what happens during the trading day. Settlement and clearing would be affected by these price movements as well, possibly causing “liquidation cascades.”

“Absent a stay, continuous trading of the Contract could take effect in a market whose price reliability, physical-market function, and clearing arrangements the Commission is presently examining, and it would do so at exactly the hours when the risks described above are most acute,” the CFTC observed.

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