 |
U.S. Stock Markets to Reopen Friday
The nation's stock markets hope to resume trading as early as Friday after a three-day shutdown following the terrorist attack that devastated the World Trade Center.
New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard A. Grasso said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference that pending a meeting Thursday of officials of the financial markets, investment firms and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the markets hoped to resume stock trading Friday, but no later than Monday.
The announcement followed a meeting of securities officials, including SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, who also spoke at the news conference.
The proximity of the NYSE's trading floor to the World Trade Center has been the major obstacle to a resumption of trading. The Nasdaq Stock Market has no similar physical plant; it is a completely electronic-based system.
Analysts were hesitant to predict the effect the tragedy would have on stocks when trading resumes, but agreed it will only add to the market's already deep-seated uncertainty.
When trading resumes, the shutdown on the NYSE, the nation's oldest exchange, will have been the longest since a nearly four-month closing during World War I.
The trade center and the NYSE are located in the area known as the Financial District, home to dozens of investment houses and brokerages. The trade center's twin 110-story towers, among the tallest skyscrapers in the world and a distinctive part of the city's skyline, collapsed Tuesday after two hijacked jetliners crashed into them, scattering debris throughout the area.
In This Section
|