US stock market to close on Jimmy Carter’s national day of mourning in January

The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Inc.’s US equities exchanges and Cboe Global Markets Inc. will shut, the companies said. CME Group Inc., operator of US-based equity and interest-rates markets, had not yet commented on its plans. The bond market will close at 2 p.m. New York time, per the recommendation of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The closures are part of a long-standing American tradition in which financial institutions halt operations following the death of a president. Carter died Dec. 29 at 100, and was the longest-living US president in history. The most recent national day of mourning came on Dec. 5, 2018, for the funeral of President George H.W. Bush.

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“The NYSE will respectfully honor President Carter’s lifetime of service to our nation by closing our markets on the National Day of Mourning,” Lynn Martin, President of NYSE Group, said in a statement. NYSE will also fly the US flag at half-staff during the mourning period, the statement said.

While markets are otherwise loath to suspend trading, the death of a president has long been an exception, beginning with the April 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. News of the 16th president’s death carried “a sensation of horror and of agony which no other event in our history has ever excited,” the New York Times reported. “Business was suspended. Crowds of people thronged the streets.”

Since then, markets have shuttered to commemorate the passing of 21 US presidents. Carter was the 39th president.

“The New York Stock Exchange in many ways is the epicenter of American capitalism. And I think the exchange closes during periods like that, especially when presidents pass away, to demonstrate that capitalism couldn’t exist without a democratic government,” Ed Yardeni, founder of his namesake firm, said by phone. “It’s a bigger statement when you close for the day as opposed to just a moment of silence.”

Other deaths have also prompted the New York Stock Exchange to close, including those of Queen Victoria, John Pierpont Morgan and Martin Luther King Jr. Markets have also shut for natural disasters, national emergencies and assaults like the Wall Street bombing of 1920 and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Avoiding panic was the goal of governmental interventions in 1933. After a series of Great Depression bank failures, on March 1 of that year, the flood of customers trying to exchange paper dollars for gold caused the New York Reserve Bank’s gold reserve to drop below its legal limit. President Herbert Hoover refused to order a nationwide holiday to prevent runs on the banks.

After consulting with market and Federal Reserve officials, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman ordered the state’s banks and securities markets shuttered for two days beginning March 4. Newly sworn in President Franklin D. Roosevelt then ordered a nationwide bank holiday, followed by his first fireside chat to reassure Americans that the banking system was sound.

Celebratory Moments

It’s not just grim occasions that have kept trading floors silent. Markets have also closed to mark celebratory moments, like the 100th anniversary of George Washington taking the oath of office as the first US president at a spot right across the street from the NYSE’s current home.

Wall Street has also stopped trading to mark the end of wars and to throw its ticker tape at heroes being paraded up Broadway.