Microsoft service outage affects global commodity trading

On Thursday, Microsoft experienced a large-scale service outage that affected government agencies, businesses, and traders worldwide. Some trading teams were forced to switch to phone, fax, and instant messaging tools. This failure complicated trading in the crude oil market against the backdrop of heightened tensions in the Middle East, causing delays in the release of some commodity price data.

Microsoft stated that progress has been made in restoring services, but more than 20 products and services may still encounter errors.