[Microsoft Global Service Outage Disrupts Commodity Trading; Oil Price Data and Trading Communication Affected] According to Jinse Finance, on November 14th, Microsoft (MSFT.O) experienced a large-scale service outage on Thursday, affecting government agencies, businesses, and traders worldwide. Some trading teams were forced to switch to telephone, fax, and instant messaging tools. This outage exacerbated the complexity of oil market trading amidst tensions in the Middle East, and delayed the release of some commodity price data. S&P Global's Platts notified clients that updates to some refined oil, natural gas, and biofuel prices might be delayed, with 22 biofuel prices suspended. Microsoft stated on Friday that progress was being made in restoring services, but more than 20 products and services might still experience errors. The outage also prevented some traders from sending and receiving emails, sending fuel price reports, and viewing profit and risk exposure reports, forcing some trading orders to be processed via telephone and fax. Platts subsequently stated that the issue had been resolved.