NYSE plans to open as usual Monday

NEW YORK -- The New York Stock Exchange plans to open for trading as usual Monday, even as Hurricane Sandy barrels its way up the Atlantic.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York City's subways and buses will shut down Sunday evening. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered residents to evacuate some low-lying areas Sunday and said city public schools will close Monday.

But the stock exchanges expect to open for regular hours. The Nasdaq OMX Group reportedly also plans to remain open. A call to a Nasdaq spokesman was not immediately returned.

The CME Group, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange, plans to shut its trading floor in New York Monday _ which is located in a mandatory evacuation zone _ but it said all electronic markets will open at their regularly scheduled times.

If Hurricane Sandy knocks out power for lower Manhattan, the NYSE can switch to its backup power generators for electricity. The servers that handle the exchange's transactions are housed in Mahwah, N.J.

Trading has rarely stopped for weather. A blizzard led to a late start and an early close on Jan. 8, 1996, according to the exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext. The NYSE shut down on March 27, 1985 for Hurricane Gloria.

Since the Great Depression, the longest suspension in trading at the NYSE occurred after the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011, when the exchange closed for four days.

Hurricane Sandy was headed north from the Caribbean, on course to meet a snowstorm and a cold front. Experts said the rare hybrid storm could cause havoc over 800 miles stretching from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.