January 2nd: What's closed, what's open4 day holiday to affect federal government, markets, some banks.NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The federal government, financial markets, institutions and some banks will close Tuesday to observe a day of mourning for President Ford. The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq stock market, and the American Stock Exchange will be closed on Jan. 2 for the national day of mourning for the 38th president.
 Aside from the stock exchanges, the commodities and futures markets said their main operations will be shut down Tuesday. The New York Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Board of Options Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange all said their floor trading operations will be closed Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Bond Market Association is recommending that trading end by 2 p.m. Tuesday. Investment banks Bear Stearns (Charts), Citigroup (Charts), Goldman Sachs (Charts) and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (Charts) will be open January 2nd. Bank of America (Charts) also plans to be open. Merrill Lynch (Charts), however, will close on January 2nd with only employees essential to market functions required in the office. Separately, the Federal Reserve will be closed Tuesday and has delayed the release of the minutes from its December meeting to Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST. The Fed's 12 regional banks will remain open Tuesday. The Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks, a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, told national banks Friday that under federal law they are allowed to close their offices Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, at their discretion. With the New Year's holiday, the additional closures will make for an usual period of downtime for the nation's financial sector. "Four days certainly is an extended period of time," said John A. Challenger of executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "There is going to be some revenue loss on a short-term basis but overall it won't have big effect." Challenger notes that it is the longest market holiday since the six days the markets were closed immediately following attacks of September 11th, 2001. Overseas the London Stock Exchange, closed Monday for New Years Day, will reopen on Jan. 2. The Euronext market will be open for business on Jan. 2 as will the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong. In Japan, all financial markets are closed from Monday through Wednesday for the nation's New Year's holidays. Japanese markets will reopen on Thursday, Jan. 4, for a half day of trading in the morning. Full-day trading will resume on Friday, Jan. 5. Challenger says that in the U.S. most employees will welcome a four day workweek. "We don't get that many of them. So when it's done by Fed mandate it's a good thing," he said. ------------------------------------------------------------- |
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