Chicago

United States • Central Time

Time Zone

Chicago uses Central Time (CST / CDT), currently running at UTC−6 (winter) / UTC−5 (summer). Clocks spring forward one hour in mid-March and fall back in early November.

Business & Commerce

Chicago operates on Central Time (CT) — Central Standard Time (CST, UTC−6) in winter and Central Daylight Time (CDT, UTC−5) in summer — placing it one hour behind New York and two hours ahead of Los Angeles. Chicago is the center of American futures and derivatives trading: the CME Group (which includes the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade) is the world's largest futures exchange, operating nearly around the clock on its Globex electronic platform from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon. CME contracts cover interest rates, equity indexes, energy, agricultural commodities, and foreign exchange, with trillions of dollars notional changing hands each day. For global market participants, Central Time is a constant daily reference point — particularly for the opening of agricultural and energy markets that are tied to U.S. Central Time benchmarks.