US markets to remain closed on today amid Hurricane Sandy

October 30, 2012•3 Minutes
RTC Director RTC Director

Hurricane Sandy has continued to disrupt business in the US East Coast, including forcing US stock markets to close again on Tuesday.

Sandy has flooded subway and road tunnels in much of Lower Manhattan.

Beyond New York City, public transport has been halted in several eastern US cities, and thousands of flights have been grounded.

The total damage is already estimated at between $10bn and $20bn (£6bn-£12bn).

It is the longest closure since 9/11 and the first time the weather has shut the stock markets for two consecutive days since 1888.

Sandy threatens an 800-mile (1,290-km) swathe of the US, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes in the Mid-West and killed 66 people in the Caribbean last week before pounding the East Coast of the US.

The storm has closed thousands businesses and severely shut down the infrastructure of the nation.

In New York, the US financial capital, an explosion at a sub-station caused power outages and darkened most of downtown Manhattan as well as Westchester County and affected more than 650,000 customers, power company Consolidated Edison said.

“This is the largest storm-related outage in our history,” said John Miksad, Con Ed’s senior vice president for electric operations.

Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq exchanges said they would remain closed on Tuesday, but both plan to reopen on Wednesday. NYSE said that its famed trading floor – based close to the major flooding in Lower Manhattan – remained undamaged.

Wednesday is a key trading day because it is the last day of the month, when traders price their portfolios.

Bond trading is also suspended.

In Europe, shares in Swiss Re rose 1.3% and Munich Re shares were also higher. The two companies are reinsurers – they insure insurers, who will have to pay out a large amount to businesses and individuals affected by Sandy.

The continued closure of public transport along the US East Coast means millions of people won’t be able to get to work.

Air traffic to and from the region has also been severely disrupted and nearly 14,000 flights were cancelled, potentially hurting airlines that were already struggling in the weak economy.

Amtrak has suspended passenger train services across the north-east.

The UN headquarters in New York is also to stay closed, while public transport was suspended in Washington DC, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston.