Stock markets in the United States will be closed again on Tuesday for a second day without trading as Hurricane Sandy roared closer to the New York area.
The New York Stock Exchange and BATS Global Markets said in separate statements that they have agreed to close, after consulting with other exchanges and clients. The N.Y.S.E. added that it planned to operate on Wednesday, pending developments in weather conditions.
The decision came as little surprise, with market operators already hinting that they would stay closed as the storm's impact intensified. And the Securities Industry and Financial Market Association, an industry trade group, recommended that United States bond markets stay closed on Tuesday as well.
The two-day stoppage is the first weather-related closure of the American stock markets since Hurricane Gloria in 1985. And it is the first unscheduled trading stoppage since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Representatives for the exchange s emphasized that the safety of their employees was paramount, relying on skeleton crews to run critical operations. And a slew of Wall Street firms, some of whose offices are based in evacuated areas of Manhattan, have asked employees to continue working remotely.
A continued stoppage in trading is expected to have some costs for exchanges like the N.Y.S.E. and the Nasdaq stock market. Richard Repetto, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, estimated that stock and option exchanges would lose about $1 million in transaction fees for every day that they are closed.
That loss of revenue would likely have little impact on those companies' earnings, he added, though Mr. Repetto added that he did not factor in lost revenue from exchanges' other businesses.
