U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed Monday in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, coming as Wall Street absorbs a record-setting run-up for equities.
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or Sifma, recommends that bond markets are closed, including the dollar-denominated 10-year Treasury note
and markets in the U.K. and Japan. Meanwhile, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq exchange are closed for the federal holiday.
Meanwhile, there will be no regular trading or settlements, including Nymex crude oil
and Comex traded gold
Energy and metals products will be fully open for electronic trading at 6 p.m. Eastern time Monday for a Tuesday trade date.
However, Brent oil
the international benchmark, on ICE Futures Europe, will hold regular trading Monday.
The King holiday comes as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
the S&P 500
and the Nasdaq Composite
indexes have been carving out records on a near-daily basis in 2020. The Dow and S&P 500 are up a brisk 2.8% in the first three weeks of the year and the Nasdaq has gained more than 4%.
The day honoring the civil-rights leader is traditionally observed on the third Monday in January and commemorates the life of King, who was born Jan. 15, 1929, and assassinated on April 4, 1968.
A market closure for King’s birthday is a relatively new development. When the holiday was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and officially established in 1986, the NYSE and other major exchanges remained open, though they observed a minute of silence at noon.
It wasn’t until Jan. 19, 1998, that the NYSE and Nasdaq first said they would take the full day off.
Although U.S. markets will be closed, in Europe, as reflected in the Stoxx Europe 600
and the FTSE 100
and market benchmarks in China, like the Shanghai Composite
indexes will be open.
