"Tiger Effect" Hits Wall Street During U.S. Open Playoff

AP

Tiger Woods playing at U.S. Open

As the U.S. Open playoff wore on yesterday, I just got the feeling that everyone on Wall Street was watching the battle between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate. How could they not? It was like a second Sunday.

With action starting at noon and finishing past the close, it theoretically slowed down four hours of the trading day. Well, this morning, I got the hard numbers from our number cruncher Ariel Nelson.

Check this out:

Average New York Stock Exchange Volume, between 12-4 pm. (last 30 days): 781.5 million shares traded.

New York Stock Exchange Volume between 12-4 pm (yesterday): 709.9 million shares traded.

That's a drop in trading on the NYSE of 9.2 percent. In fact, it was the lowest trading day since the Friday and Tuesday that sandwiches Memorial Day weekend.

How's that for the "Tiger Effect?"

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