US Markets closed in honor of George HW Bush

The US markets are closed today in honour of George HW Bush.

The 41st president of the United States passed away on Friday, November 30th. He was 94 years old.

The funeral is to be held today, Wednesday, December 5th. As is a tradition in the United States, the markets will remain closed for the funeral, in order to honour the legacy and memory of the president. This has taken place during every US Presidential funeral. The last time this happened was 7 years ago, during the funeral of US ex-president Gerald Ford. Prior to that, the closings took place in 2004 and 1994 during the funerals of ex-presidents Ronald Raegan and Richard Nixon, respectively.

What is closed?

The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Exchange will both remain closed for the funeral. Stacey Cunningham, the New York State Exchange group president mentioned that the president will always be remembered as a statesman, an advocate of freedom, a valiant fighter against dictatorships and totalitarianism, as well as the great American president that he was.

The US bond market will remain closed as well, as per the recommendation from the Securities Industry and Financial Market Association. SIFMA also recommends that all secondary market transactions that were executed on December 4th be settled on December 5th, if prudent. There are no other recommendations made by SIFMA, with municipal and corporate settlements remain open for the day, as DTCC and NSCC remain unaffected and open.

SIFMAs recommendations will be affecting transactions of US government and agency securities with US dollar denomination, mortgage and asset-backed securities, over the counter investment-grade and high yield corporate bonds, municipal bonds as well as secondary market trading in commercial paper, Yankee and Euro deposit certificates as well as Banker acceptances.

Finally, CME group also mentioned that they will be closing all US-based equity and interest rate futures and options products.

This will not be affecting foreign exchange trading in the US or anywhere else in the world as Forex Brokers will keep working.

With the markets closing with large negative trends on Tuesday, we are left with a lot of suspense for what is to come in the near future.