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Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, but what does this mean for the stock market? The stock market is normally closed on federal holidays. And in this case, when the holiday is on a Saturday, it is closed the day before. But is the stock market open or closed this year for Juneteenth’s first year?
Stock Markets Are Expected to Be Open
Juneteenth is the first new federal holiday created since 1983, NBC Connecticut reported, and it falls on Saturday, June 19, 2021. So understandably, there may be some confusion regarding what is open or closed for the holiday. Because Juneteenth falls on a Saturday, some federal workers are getting Friday off. The stock market sometimes does this too. This year because Christmas is on a Saturday, for example, the market will be closed on December 24.
But the stock markets are expected to be open on Friday, June 18. Barron’s reported on Thursday afternoon that both the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will be open for business as usual on Friday, operating normal hours. Of course, there’s always the chance that a last-minute change might be made with the NYSE. But Nasdaq officially announced on Twitter that they will be open.
Nasdaq wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday night: “All U.S. markets operated by @Nasdaq will remain open on Friday, June 18, 2021 and Monday, June 21, 2021 to maintain a fair and orderly market and to minimize operational risks… @Nasdaq commends the U.S. Congress and @POTUS for taking action to designate Juneteenth as a new federal holiday. Nasdaq looks forward to engaging with industry participants and regulators regarding updates to future trading schedules and holidays.”
NYSE simply tweeted congratulations about the holiday.
An Intercontinental Exchange representative told Nasdaq.com that schedule changes for NYSE would be reflected on the website. The NYSE’s website does not currently list Juneteenth as an observed holiday. Holidays that the NYSE is closed on include New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day (observed on July 5 since the holiday falls on a Sunday), Labor Day, Thanksgiving (each market closes early at 1 p.m. on Friday, November 26), and Christmas (where the holiday is observed on Friday, December 24 since the actual holiday falls on a Saturday.)
Impact Shares announced that they would be ringing the closing bell for the NYSE on Friday.
Fox Business Network reported that NYSE traders are rebalancing options on Friday (which only occurs four times a year), so closing would be too difficult to pull off at the last minute. Sources close to the NYSE told Fox that it would not close in 2021 but would re-evaluate for 2022.
The SEC regulator’s offices will be closed Friday, Barron’s reported. The EDGAR system will also be closed and not accepting filings.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association said it would incorporate Juneteenth into its holiday schedule in future years, MarketWatch reported.
What Is Juneteenth?
Juneteenth celebrates and remembers the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned that they were free, The New York Times reported. They were informed about two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered. The announcement officially put the Emancipation Proclamation from two years earlier into effect.
On June 17, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth bill, he said, in part:
Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound — in my view — profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take — what I’ve long called America’s original sin.
At the same time, I also remember the extraordinary capacity to heal, and to hope, and to emerge from the most painful moments and a bitter, bitter version of ourselves, but to make a better version of ourselves. …Today, we consecrate Juneteenth for what it ought to be, what it must be: a national holiday…
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