US financial markets will stall on Monday in compliance with Presidents Day – which is technically not the name of the holiday.
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will close on February 15. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or Sifma, does not recommend trading in dollar bonds, which means the accurate 10-year treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y,
– as well as interest rates for money markets and deposit certificates – will join the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
the S&P 500 index SPX,
and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP,
in a static state.
And trading futures and options on CME Group CME,
exchanges will also be discontinued on Monday. In other words, there will be no settlements in the trading of GCJ21 gold contracts,
or crude oil CL.1,
Traders will, however, be able to trade goods on the Globex platform, with a break starting after 1pm Eastern.
Here is the skinny on the so-called Presidents Day. According to the Library of Congress, in 1879 the Congress declared a holiday in Washington. The first president of the republic was born on February 22, 1732.
A number of sources indicate that the holiday was first celebrated only in the District of Columbia, but that in 1885 it was widely recognized as a federal holiday, which was the first time an American individual was commemorated via a bank holiday.
The Uniform Holidays Act of 1968 changed the day of commemoration to the third Monday of February. The Library of Congress website says the designation of the day was never formally changed into Presidents Day, but the name is often referred to because February 12 is the birthday of 16th American President Abraham Lincoln.
The holiday is still often referred to as Washington’s birthday, and it is recognized by the ICE provided by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. owned,
New York Stock Exchange.
It is the history of the recognition of initially one president and then later two presidents, or the presidency in general, that may be to blame for the style variations that usually occur in written references to Presidential Day – or alternately, Presidential Day or Presidential Day.
Presidents Day is the preferred style for such standard journalistic compilers as the Associated Press Stylebook (whose Twitter account is tends to tweet a reminder annually) and the style guide of The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, Canadian markets have closed, taking into account Family Day, which coincides with US President’s Day, which fell on the third Monday in February. Trading on European markets and movements in such benchmarks as the Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP,
and the FTSE 100 UKX of the United Kingdom,
will be running as usual on Monday.
However, Asian markets will mostly be closed for the new lunar year, changing the page from the COVID-plagued year of the rat to the year of the ox, which officially began on February 12th. The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP,
the CSI 300 000300,
the Shenzhen Composite Index 399106,
and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI,
will be closed on Monday.
China prices strike from February 11 to 17, while Hong Kong’s markets will be closed from Friday to Monday.
Markets in Asia and the US are hoping for better economic times as the world seeks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic first identified in December 2019, which has since led to 108 million cases worldwide – 27 million in the U.S., along with 475,000 U.S. deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.