The floor of the New York Stock Exchange was empty of traders, Oct. 29, and Oct. 30, 2012, in New York, due to Hurricane Sandy. (Photo: Richard Drew, AP)
NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange will reopen for regular
trading Wednesday after being shut down for two days because of
Hurricane Sandy.
The exchange said in a statement Tuesday that its building and trading floor are fully operational.
Tuesday
marks the first time since 1888 that the NYSE remained closed for two
consecutive days due to weather. The last time was due to a massive
blizzard.
Sections of Manhattan remain inundated with water and power is shut off to thousands of people and businesses.
Earlier, U.S. stock exchanges had been testing all-electronic trading systems in case they couldn't reopen Wednesday.
The
goal was to resume trading as soon as possible in the wake of Hurricane
Sandy because mutual fund portfolios are balanced and futures and
options contracts worth billions of dollars are settled on the last
trading day every month.
The New York Stock Exchange said contingency plans, such as all-electronic trading, were being tested as a safety measure.
If
they had been implemented, the opening and closing auctions would have
been handled by the electronic NYSE Arca system. It has been tested in
the past but has never been used to completely replace trading on the
floor of the NYSE.
On Tuesday, stock futures trading continued as
it did Monday, although volume was light. Futures were modestly lower
for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor's 500
index and the Nasdaq composite index. Futures trading ended at 9:15 a.m.
ET.
Dozens of companies have postponed earnings reports this week
because of the storm, but Ford Motor on Tuesday released results for
the third quarter that topped Wall Street expectations.
Global markets rebounded Tuesday, though trading was subdued in the wake of the storm.
In
Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares ended up 1% at
5,849.90, while Germany's DAX 30 closed up 1.1% to 7,284.40. The CAC-40
in France finished up 1.5% at 3,459.44.
Earlier in Asia, trading was mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1% to close at 8,841.98.
South
Korea's Kospi index rose 0.4% to 1,899.58 but Hong Kong's Hang Seng
index fell 0.4% to 21,428.58. Benchmarks in mainland China also rose.
Crude oil prices rose 34 cents to $85.88 Tuesday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Associated Press