Most U.S. Markets Will Be Closed Tuesday for Ford's Funeral

The New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq, American Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve will be closed Tuesday for the funeral of President Gerald Ford.

The U.S. bond market will close at 2 p.m. New York time.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) will halt most of their trading on Tuesday as well.

The NYMEX trading pits will be dark, but electronic trading of all NYMEX and COMEX division products through CME Globex will be available to energy and metals customers from 6:00 p.m. New York Time on Jan. 1 until 5:15 p.m. on Jan. 2., the exchange said in a statement.

The CME's commodity and equity markets will be closed, but foreign exchange and interest rate products will trade Tuesday, but those markets will close early, at 1 pm New York Time.

The CBOT is closing open auction trading of equity indices and metal and agricultural products. The exchange said its overnight electronic agricultural markets would trade as normal, opening at 7:30 p.m. New York time on Monday and closing at 7 am Tuesday.

Electronic trade in the CBOT's interest rate products will open as normal at 7:00 p.m. New York time on Monday and close early at 1:15 pm Tuesday, while open-auction trade will open normally at 7:20 am Tuesday and close early at 1 pm.

Bonds will trade a shortened day. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association is recommending the bond market close early at 2 pm on Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury has moved up the closing times for its auction of 3- and 6-month bills. Non-competitive bids will close at 11 am and competitive bids at 11:30 am.

The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting of Dec. 12, 2006, originally scheduled for release on January 2, will instead be released at 2 pm Wednesday.

Financial markets have traditionally closed for presidential funerals, the last time being the burial of President Ronald Reagan in June 2004. Stock trading will resume Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Wall Street's closing on the day of a national funeral dates back to the burial of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1885. However, the NYSE has sometimes traded on a shortened schedule during a presidential funeral -- the last time, for Herbert Hoover's funeral in 1964.

Nasdaq will broadcast memorial messages on the Nasdaq Tower throughout Tuesday. The twelve regional Reserve Banks will be open and operating during normal business hours and will provide all financial services as usual.