The US stock markets will close on January 9 in Carter’s day of mourning

(Bloomberg) — U.S. stock markets will close Jan. 9 in observance of a national day of mourning for former President Jimmy Carter.

Most Read by Bloomberg

The New York Stock Exchange, the US stock exchange of Nasdaq Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. will close, the companies said. CME Group Inc., a U.S.-based operator of the equity and interest rate markets, had not yet commented on its plans. The bond market will close at 2 p.m. New York time, according to the recommendation of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The shutdowns are part of a long American tradition in which financial institutions cease operations after the death of a president. Carter died on December 29 at the age of 100, and was the longest-serving American president in history. The most recent national day of mourning came on December 5, 2018, for the funeral of President George HW Bush.

“The NYSE will respectfully honor President Carter’s lifetime of service to our nation by closing our markets on the day of national mourning,” NYSE Group President Lynn Martin 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 reluctant to suspect trading, the death of a president has long been an exception, beginning with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in April 1865. The news of the 16th president’s death brought “a sensation of horror and agony which no other event in our history has ever excited,” said the New York Times. “Business was suspended. Crowds of people flocked to the streets.”

Since then, the markets have closed to commemorate the death of 21 presidents of the United States. Carter was the 39th president.

“The New York Stock Exchange in many ways is the epicenter of American capitalism. And I think that the exchange closes in periods like this, especially when presidents die, to show that capitalism could not exist without a democratic government,” Ed Yardeni, founder of his eponymous firm, said by phone. “It’s a bigger statement when you close for the day instead of just a moment of silence.”

Other deaths also prompted the closing of the New York Stock Exchange, including those of Queen Victoria, John Pierpont Morgan, and Martin Luther King Jr. Markets have also closed due to natural disasters, national emergencies and attacks such as the 1920 Wall Street bombing and terrorist attacks. attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

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

The Story Continues