US stock markets are closed as Hurricane Sandy nears landfall on the heavily populated east coast and parts of New York City’s financial district were evacuated.
The markets are likely to remain closed on Tuesday.
The last time the New York Stock Exchange had an unplanned closing was after the terrorist attacks in September 2001.
Duncan Niederauer, the chief executive of the exchange’s parent company, NYSE Euronext, told CNBC it was “hard to imagine” that the exchange would open on Tuesday.
The storm comes at the start of a big week in the United States. This is the last full week before next Tuesday’s presidential election and culminates on Friday with the release of monthly jobs data, which many analysts think could have an impact on the vote.
A spokesman for the exchange said an official announcement would be made later about whether the closures would extend into Tuesday.
If that happens, it would be the first time since 1888 that weather caused a two-day shutdown of the exchange.
The cause in 1888 was a blizzard that left drifts as high as 12.2 metres in the streets.
The Nasdaq and the CME Group in Chicago also closed. CME Group’s Nymex headquarters and New York trading floor are located in the mandatory evacuation zone in Manhattan. Its New York trading floor was closed, but electronic markets were functioning.
Crude oil fell 32 cents to $US85.96 in electronic trading.
European stock markets were mostly lower. Britain’s FTSE fell 0.3 per cent and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.9 per cent. Insurers such as Munich Re, Aviva and Zurich Insurance fared worse than other stocks as investors worried about the potential cost of the storm’s damage.
“The economic impact cannot be underestimated,” said Elsa Lignos, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
Some companies are postponing quarterly earnings reports scheduled for release early this week, including Pfizer and Thomson Reuters. Burger King reported on schedule, and said its third-quarter net income fell 83 per cent as revenue was hurt by the stronger US dollar. Adjusted results topped expectations, however.
The US government reported a strong increase in consumer spending last month.
The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending increased 0.8 per cent in September. That followed a 0.5 per cent gain in August and was the best showing since February. Personal income rose 0.4 per cent, an improvement from a slight 0.1 percent gain in August and the best gain since March.
It’s a closely watched indicator as consumer spending drives about 70 per cent of the nation’s economic activity.
US stock index futures fell slightly in thin trading. By the time trading ended at its regular time of 9.15am, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 61 points to 12,993 and S&P 500 futures fell five points to 1,402. Nasdaq futures fell 15 to 2,643.
