U.S. stock market to close Jan. 9 on Carter’s day of mourning

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

The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Inc.’s U.S. equities exchanges and Cboe Global Markets Inc. will shut, the companies said. CME Group Inc., operator of U.S.-based equity and interest-rates markets, had not yet commented on its plans.

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

“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 U.S. 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 U.S. presidents. Carter was the 39th president.

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.

“The markets were right to shut down and just avoid financial panic,” Yardeni said, referring to 9/11. “Nobody really knew whether there would be more attacks.”

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 U.S. 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.