U.S. stock, bond and commodity markets will open as usual Monday after Manhattan was spared the worst of Hurricane Irene, avoiding the first weather-related shutdown since 1985. NYSE Euronext, Nasdaq OMX Group, Bats Global Markets and Direct Edge Holdings LLC — the four biggest operators of equity exchanges in the world’s biggest capital market — sent statements saying they plan normal trading sessions Monday. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recommended no change to bond-market schedules, and CME Group Inc. said the New York Mercantile Exchange will open.
“Exchanges had prepared for the worst, and thankfully the worst didn’t materialize,” Chris Isaacson, chief operating officer at Bats, said in a phone interview. “The U.S. securities industry is very resilient,” he said. “Because of the electronification of markets, most systems are not dependent on humans being there.”
While the public face of U.S. equity trading is the New York Stock Exchange in Manhattan, only 13 percent of the nation’s trading volume took place on that venue in the past year. Almost all of the rest is handled electronically, with orders matched in data centers in New Jersey and elsewhere.
Irene struck New York City with winds of 65 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in a special advisory at 9 a.m. Sunday. A storm surge of 3.8 feet was reported at New York Harbor. Total water levels of almost 8.6 feet, or moderate-stage flooding, were reported at Battery Park City in lower Manhattan before receding, the hurricane center said.
“It wasn’t as bad as expected,” said Brian Pfeffer, chief operating officer at Direct Access Partners LLC, a New York brokerage with about 20 employees that work on the NYSE trading floor. “I don’t see a problem with trading [Monday] at all.”
Direct Access tested systems Saturday night and was told by the management company that its office building where 60 more employees work, 40 Wall Street, would be open, Pfeffer said. He expects to drive to work Monday from Manalapan, N.J., or take a ferry if the Holland Tunnel isn’t operating normally.
“As for Monday, my plans are to leave around 3 a.m. to be sure to get in early and check with NYSE and our systems people,” Doreen Mogavero, chief executive officer of Mogavero Lee & Co., who trades on the NYSE floor, said in an email Sunday. “As long as systems are good and phone lines are up it should be business as usual.”
