09/12 13:45
U.S. Markets, Closed for 2nd Day, May Reopen Tomorrow (Update3)
By David Wilson
New York, Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. financial markets may open tomorrow after being halted for two days by the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.
Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission are scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. with leaders of the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market and primary dealers in the U.S. Treasury market on how to resume trading.
Stock exchanges didn't open today and trading never began yesterday after the destruction of the World Trade Center. The government bond market was closed on the recommendation of the Bond Market Association, a group representing domestic dealers. U.S. stocks and bonds didn't trade in Europe, either.
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt said trading on U.S. markets may resume tomorrow.
The SEC and the markets themselves are ``doing everything to make it possible for our markets to reopen tomorrow,'' Pitt told Bloomberg News.
Markets closed yesterday, as did many corporate offices, after terrorists hijacked commercial jets and destroyed both of the World Trade Center's 110-story towers along with a 47-story building nearby.
In New York City, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani closed the area of Manhattan south of 14th Street to civilians. Bridges and tunnels into Manhattan were blocked, though trains were running.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., based across the street from the site of the World Trade Center, told some people to report to offices in Jersey City, New Jersey. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. told some to stay home. Officials didn't answer the phones there.
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which had 3,500 people working at the Trade Center, has its headquarters in midtown Manhattan and told employees to come ``on a case by case basis,'' said Judy Hitchen, a company spokeswoman.
The disruptions weren't limited to financial companies. Philip Morris Cos., the largest maker of cigarettes, closed all offices in the New York metropolitan area today after keeping its headquarters in the city open yesterday. ``We're just making sure everyone has a place to go,'' said David Tovar, a spokesman for
The company also has operations in Parsippany, New Jersey, and in Rye Brook and Tarrytown, New York.
`Active Consultation'
General Mills Inc., the maker of cereals such as Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, postponed the release of fiscal first- quarter results that was set for today.
On the other hand, Oracle Corp. decided to report fiscal first-quarter earnings tomorrow as scheduled. The third-largest software company lost an employee on a hijacked plane, and others were working in the Trade Center.
``We have to stay on the job,'' Chief Executive Larry Ellison said. ``We cannot let these terrorists shut us down. Not the U.S., not Oracle.''
Yesterday's attacks took place before the 9:30 a.m. opening for U.S. stock markets, where $90 billion of shares trade on an average day.
The last time trading was suspended for an entire session aside from holiday observances was in March 1933, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for a nationwide bank holiday. The NYSE halted trading for 10 days, according to its Web site. Trading also was halted for more than four months after World War I erupted in 1914, according to the exchange.
In Europe, the London Stock Exchange Plc, Euronext NV and Deutsche Boerse AG opened at the normal time, though without U.S. stock trading. Some exchanges observed one minute of silence at 8:45 a.m. New York time to commemorate the attack's victims.
The FT-SE 100 in London gained 2.3 percent. The German DAX rose 1 percent and the CAC-40 in Paris added 0.7 percent. Each benchmark index lost at least 5 percent yesterday.
Earlier, Asian stocks tumbled, especially the shares of companies depending on the U.S. for much of their sales. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 6.6 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 8.9 percent, and Korea's Kospi index plummeted a record 12 percent.
Few U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds traded amid the closings in the U.S. and Europe. By comparison, $292 billion in securities change hands on an average day, according to the Bond Market Association.
Cantor Fitzgerald LP, which accounts for about a fourth of U.S. government bond trading, had its headquarters in the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in yesterday's attack. Other firms, including Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, were in the Trade Center and nearby buildings.
The Chicago Board of Trade's a/c/e electronic brokerage system said it will probably reopen at 8 p.m. Chicago time, or 10 a.m. Thursday in Japan. The system handles almost all trading in U.S. bond futures in Asia, said Nick Bolton, managing director of the Chicago Board of Trade's Asia-Pacific office in Sydney. |
