Making a midnight Deal

When the afternoon bells rang on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the clamorous trading in financial futures used to come to an abrupt stop. Until last Thursday, traders were forced to wait until the next day to carry out deals triggered by late-breaking economic developments. But in a historic move, the Merc last week opened a late shift running from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. This was accomplished by electronically Unking Chicago trading with a futures exchange in Singapore, which is 14 hours ahead of Central Standard Time. The connection allows traders in both cities to make late-night deals to keep up with volatile international markets.

The Chicago-Singapore hookup is a major step in the trend toward round-the-clock, round-the-world financial trading. Last July, officials of the New York and American stock exchanges announced that they were exploring the possibility of expanding their hours beyond the current 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. When the Chicago-Singapore link opened last week, trading was limited to futures contracts in Eurodollars, which are U.S. dollars deposited in foreign banks, and deutsche marks. Next month the exchange will begin trading futures in Japanese yen, and it may soon handle commodities like gold.