Stock Market: What to Expect After the Storm

Market Outlook: Investors Bracing for More Than One Big Storm
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As Hurricane Sandy makes its way up the Atlantic coast, CNBC looked at the Dow and S&P 500 performance the day after the market was closed due to a major event.

U.S. exchanges closed Monday as millions of people in more than a half-dozen states in the Northeast were impacted by the effects of the storm.

Since 1945, the largest loss the day after a catastrophe occurred on Monday September 17, 2001, the date following the 9-11 terrorist attacks (note that the market remained closed for 4 full trading days).

On average, however, the market has been relatively unchanged the last 13 times it closed due to a major event (1985 was the last time the market closed due to weather).

NYSE Euronext announced that the exchange would remain closed on Tuesday, Oct. 30, marking the first unscheduled multiple-day closing for a weather-related reason since the blizzard of 1888 — the only other time the NYSE closed for more than a day due to weather.

Source: CNBC Analytics and Morningstar Commodity Data

CNBC's Analyst bythenumbers.cnbc.com