The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) closes for 10 holidays in 2024 and the Nasdaq Stock Market follows the same schedule.Columbus Day (observed in some states and cities as Indigenous Peoples’ Day), is not among them, and the exchanges will operate normally on Monday, Oct 14.
Here is the 2024 holiday schedule for the NYSE and Nasdaq:
- New Year’s Day: Monday, Jan. 1
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Monday, Jan. 15
- Washington’s Birthday: Monday, Feb. 19
- Good Friday: Friday, March 29
- Memorial Day: Monday, May 27
- Juneteenth National Independence Day: Wednesday, June 19
- Independence Day: Thursday, July 4
- Labor Day: Monday, Sept. 2
- Thanksgiving: Thursday, Nov. 28
- Christmas: Wednesday, Dec. 25
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The exchanges typically operate from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET on business daysbut they close early (at 1 p.m. ET) on three occasions in 2024. There are two remaining: the day after Thanksgiving (Friday, Nov. 29) and Christmas Eve (Tuesday, Dec. 24).
Bond market and bank holidays differ
Bond traders follow a different holiday calendar under guidelines set by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, a trade group that represents securities firms, banks and asset management companies. U.S. bond markets close on all of the 10 days the stock exchanges are silent plus Columbus Day and Veterans Day (Monday, Nov. 11).
The bond markets shut down early (at 2 p.m. ET) on three more occasions in 2024: the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
The stock market calendar also differs from the Federal Reserve System holiday schedule followed by most U.S. banks. The Fed observes Columbus Day and Veterans Day, does not take Good Friday off and does not have any formally scheduled early closing days.
Stock exchanges rarely sleep for long
Except in rare circ*mstances, three-day holiday weekends are the longest times the stock market goes quiet. The exchanges have closed for more than three days running only a handful of times in the past century, most recently during Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The three-day limit is not a formal policy, but rather a rule of thumb that prevents “investor angst” from building up during an extended down period and creating volatility when the market reopens, says Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at the investment research firm CFRA.
“There’s an old saying that bull markets take the escalator while bear markets take the elevator,” Stovall says. “Since fear is a greater motivator than greed, I think investors don’t want to be denied access to their money for too long. Otherwise they end up taking money off the table, especially if some unnerving event occurred while the exchange was closed.”
