Hurricane Sandy will close U.S. stock markets for a second day in a roll and now the debate is on whether markets will be able to resume functioning on the month’s final trading day on Wednesday. 

U.S. stock markets closed on Monday for the first time in 27 years due to weather. The weather also canceled many financial conferences throughout the city. A decision to close the markets on Tuesday was announced early yesterday afternoon, and many hoped to reopen trading by Wednesday morning. Of course those hopes were before knowing the total number of power outages New York city is currently suffering. ConEdison is reporting over 612,000 are without power in New York City (which includes over 250,000 in lower Manhattan).

Why is it important for the market to open back up by Wednesday? Wednesday is a key trading day because it marks the end of the month, when traders price portfolios. After seeing recent photos from New York, I'm assuming the market may not open by Wednesday.

Financial analysts estimated banks and trading firms could lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue due to Hurricane Sandy. Disaster modeling company Eqecat said the storm is likely to cause insured losses of $5 billion to $10 billion, and economic losses of $10 billion to $20 billion.”

Once more information is reported, we will keep you updated.

 

 

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