CME Futures Holidays 2026 and 2027: Full Trading Calendar

CME Group runs the world’s largest futures and options exchange complex, covering equity index futures (E-mini S&P 500, Nasdaq 100), Treasury futures, crude oil, gold, currencies and short-term interest rate contracts. Most CME products trade nearly around the clock on the CME Globex electronic platform: the trading week opens Sunday at 5:00 pm Central Time (6:00 pm ET, 11:00 pm London) and runs to Friday at 4:00 pm CT (5:00 pm ET, 10:00 pm London), with a daily maintenance break between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm CT. The next disruption to that schedule is Monday, September 7, 2026, when US Labor Day brings an early close: equity index futures halt at 12:00 pm CT (1:00 pm ET, 6:00 pm London). Full schedule and background: futures market holidays.

Unlike the New York Stock Exchange, CME rarely shuts for a full day. On most US public holidays the exchange stays open in a shortened session, then reopens at the usual Globex time that evening. That matters for anyone hedging or trading outside US hours, because a “closed” US stock market does not mean a closed futures market.

CME Futures holidays 2026

Date	Holiday	Status
Monday, September 7, 2026	Labor Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Thursday, November 26, 2026	Thanksgiving Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Friday, November 27, 2026	Day After Thanksgiving (Early Close)	Early close at 12:15
Thursday, December 24, 2026	Christmas Eve (Early Close)	Early close at 12:15
Friday, December 25, 2026	Christmas Day	Closed

All times shown are Central Time, the time zone of CME’s Chicago headquarters. A 12:00 CT halt is 1:00 pm ET and 6:00 pm in London; a 12:15 CT close is 1:15 pm ET and 6:15 pm London.

CME Futures holidays 2027

Date	Holiday	Status
Friday, January 1, 2027	New Year’s Day	Closed
Monday, January 18, 2027	Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Monday, February 15, 2027	Presidents’ Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Friday, March 26, 2027	Good Friday	Closed
Monday, May 31, 2027	Memorial Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Friday, June 18, 2027	Juneteenth (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Monday, July 5, 2027	Independence Day Observed (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Monday, September 6, 2027	Labor Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Thursday, November 25, 2027	Thanksgiving Day (Equity Futures Halt 12:00 CT)	Early close at 12:00
Friday, November 26, 2027	Day After Thanksgiving (Early Close)	Early close at 12:15
Friday, December 24, 2027	Christmas Day (Observed)	Closed

Early closes and half days

The pattern at CME is simple once you see it. On the nine US federal holidays that fall on a weekday, the exchange does not close for the whole day. Instead, equity index futures such as the E-mini S&P 500 and E-mini Nasdaq 100 halt at 12:00 pm CT (1:00 pm ET, 6:00 pm London). Other product groups have their own shortened schedules, but the equity futures halt is the reference point most traders use because it marks the end of meaningful US price discovery for the day.

• Federal holiday early closes at 12:00 CT: Labor Day on September 7, 2026 and September 6, 2027; Thanksgiving Day on November 26, 2026 and November 25, 2027; Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18, 2027; Presidents’ Day on February 15, 2027; Memorial Day on May 31, 2027; Juneteenth on June 18, 2027; and Independence Day observed on July 5, 2027.
• Post-holiday and Christmas Eve early closes at 12:15 CT: the day after Thanksgiving on November 27, 2026 and November 26, 2027, and Christmas Eve on December 24, 2026.
• Full closures: Christmas Day on December 25, 2026, New Year’s Day on January 1, 2027, Good Friday on March 26, 2027, and Christmas Day observed on December 24, 2027.

Two practical points. First, on a 12:00 CT holiday session, trading opened the previous evening at 5:00 pm CT, so a full overnight session has already taken place before the halt. Second, after an early close the market normally reopens on the following business evening at 5:00 pm CT, meaning the “holiday” gap is short. Volumes in these shortened sessions are usually a fraction of a normal day, so bid-ask spreads (the gap between the best buying and selling price) widen and single large orders can move prices more than usual.

Good Friday is the one non-federal holiday that closes CME entirely, because US Treasury and equity markets shut that day even though banks are open. Note that Good Friday moves each year with Easter: March 26 in 2027.

Trading hours on CME Group Futures

CME Globex, the electronic platform, is the reference schedule for almost all volume. The week runs from Sunday 5:00 pm CT to Friday 4:00 pm CT, with a one-hour maintenance break each weekday from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm CT. That gives roughly 23 hours of trading per day, five days a week.

Session point	Chicago (CT)	New York (ET)	London

Because futures trade nearly continuously, the concepts of “pre-market” and “after-hours” work differently from shares. There is no separate pre-market auction: the hours before the 8:30 am CT (9:30 am ET, 2:30 pm London) US cash equity open are simply part of the same continuous futures session, which is why E-mini S&P 500 futures are the standard way to gauge where Wall Street will open. Equally, the hours after 3:00 pm CT are still live trading, which is why futures react to company results and overnight news from Asia and Europe while the New York Stock Exchange is shut.

One timing trap for readers outside the United States: the US moves its clocks in March and November on different dates from the UK and the European Union. For a few weeks each spring and autumn the London gap to Chicago is five or seven hours instead of the usual six, so a 12:00 CT holiday halt can land an hour earlier or later in UK time than you expect. Always check the local conversion in the week of the holiday.

How holidays affect settlement, dividends and options

Holidays shift the plumbing behind the trade, not just the trading hours.

• Daily settlement prices. CME publishes an official settlement price for each contract each day, and that price drives margin calls, the cash a broker demands to cover open positions. On an early-close day the settlement window is pulled forward, so your account may be marked at a mid-afternoon price rather than a late-afternoon one. If you are short of cash in a margin account, a holiday is a bad day to be close to the line.
• Business day counts. Interest rate and currency contracts price off the number of business days to delivery. Removing a US business day, or adding one where London trades and New York does not, changes short-dated funding maths and can move currency forward points slightly.
• Options expiry. Weekly and monthly options on futures expire on set days. When an expiry lands next to a holiday, the last trading session is shorter, and time decay (the loss of an option’s value as expiry approaches) still runs over the closed days. A three-day weekend removes trading time but not calendar time, which is a routine reason short-dated implied volatility softens into a long weekend.
• Dividends and index futures. Equity index futures are priced off expected dividends from the underlying shares. Holidays do not change dividend amounts, but they do shift ex-dividend and payment dates in the cash market, which can nudge the fair value spread between futures and the index.
• Data releases. When a holiday falls in the first week of a month, US statistical agencies shift their calendars too. That is why a Labor Day Monday can push the following week’s data into an unusual slot. Check the US jobs report and US CPI report schedules around holiday weeks.

Other markets

Holiday alignment across markets is patchy, and the gaps are where risk sits.

• US Treasuries: the cash bond market follows SIFMA recommendations, which usually mean a full close on federal holidays and a 2:00 pm ET early close on days such as the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. So on Labor Day the cash bond market is shut while Treasury futures at CME still trade in a shortened session.
• US shares: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq close fully on the nine federal holidays and on Good Friday, with 1:00 pm ET early closes around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Futures therefore keep quoting after the cash market has gone home.
• Europe and Asia: the London Stock Exchange, Euronext, Deutsche Börse, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore all trade normally on US-only holidays such as Thanksgiving, Independence Day and Labor Day. The genuinely global stoppages are Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Good Friday, when almost every Western exchange is shut. Japan is the exception: the Tokyo Stock Exchange trades on Good Friday but closes for a long run of domestic holidays, including Golden Week in early May and the New Year break, when CME is open.
• Commodities and FX: ICE energy contracts, LME metals and the interbank currency market each keep their own holiday rules. The spot currency market never fully closes on a US holiday, but liquidity thins sharply once New York steps away, so quoted spreads widen.
• Crypto: bitcoin and ether trade 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on crypto exchanges with no holidays at all. CME’s regulated bitcoin and ether futures, however, follow the CME calendar, which is why a large weekend or holiday move in spot crypto can show up as a gap when CME futures reopen.

What It Means for Your Money

If you never trade futures, the CME calendar still touches you, because these markets set the reference prices that flow into everyday finance.

Mortgages and savings. CME’s interest rate futures, including SOFR and Fed funds contracts, are where the market’s expectation of central bank policy is priced. Fixed mortgage rates and the rates banks pay savers move with those expectations, not just with the current policy rate. Holiday sessions are thin, so a price move on a half day is a weaker signal than the same move on a full day. Do not read too much into a Christmas Eve lurch in rate expectations.

Pensions and investments. Index funds are valued from cash market closing prices, so a US holiday means your fund’s US holdings are simply not repriced that day, even though futures are trading. If you place a trade in a US-focused fund on a US holiday, expect it to be executed at the next available valuation point.

Prices at the pump and in the shop. Crude oil, natural gas, wheat and copper futures on CME and its NYMEX and COMEX divisions feed into fuel, food and manufacturing costs. Thin holiday trading can exaggerate short-term moves that later reverse.

The pound, dollar and euro. Currency futures liquidity drops when New York is away. If you are converting money for a holiday, a property purchase or a salary transfer, a thin US holiday session can mean a slightly worse rate from your provider, because the spreads they hedge with are wider. Where the amount is large, transacting during a full London and New York overlap usually costs less.

Trading and stop orders. Positions left open through a long weekend carry gap risk: news can break while the market is shut, and the reopening price at 5:00 pm CT may be well away from the last traded level. Stop orders do not protect against a gap; they trigger at the next available price. Margin requirements are also sometimes raised ahead of long weekends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the futures market open today?

CME Globex is open from Sunday 5:00 pm CT to Friday 4:00 pm CT with a daily 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm CT maintenance break. Check the tables above: full closures in this period are December 25, 2026, January 1, 2027, March 26, 2027 and December 24, 2027, with every other listed date an early close rather than a full holiday.

What time does CME close on Labor Day, September 7, 2026?

Equity index futures halt at 12:00 pm CT, which is 1:00 pm ET and 6:00 pm in London. Trading resumes at the usual 5:00 pm CT Globex reopen that evening.

Is the bond market open when futures are trading?

Not always. On US federal holidays the cash Treasury market is closed under SIFMA’s recommended schedule while CME’s Treasury futures still trade a shortened session, so futures can move with no cash market to reference.

How many CME holidays are there each year?

CME normally has around eleven or twelve dates a year with a modified schedule: the nine US federal holidays plus Good Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Most are early closes, and only Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are typically full closures.

Where is the official CME holiday calendar?

CME Group publishes product-by-product hours and holiday schedules on its trading hours page. Because each product group can have its own halt time, check the specific contract you trade rather than relying on the equity futures halt alone. Related data schedules: US GDP report and US PCE report.