'May Day' Market Closings: Quiet Day for US?
Several major markets around the world will be closed Tuesday for May Day, which will help limit volatility for U.S. equities.
May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is a national holiday celebrating labor rights in more than 80 countries and is also observed unofficially in many others.
Meanwhile, all U.S. stock exchanges will be open and operate as normal.
“The market pattern has shown that lacking any negative Europe and Asian markets, U.S. markets have found a path of least resistance to the upside,” said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets.
Hogan noted U.S. equities have been decoupling from the international markets in recent months, which has also helped reduce volatility.
“Although we get a lot [of economic reports] this week, everyone’s going to be focused on Friday’s jobs numbers,” added Hogan.
Trading volume is also expected to be significantly lighter. Joe Bell, senior equity analyst at Schaeffer's Research noted that the SPY's average volume on May 1 is 29 percent less compared to other days of the year.
And Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s, found that the S&P index climbs an average of 0.14 percent (based on data over the last 62 occurrences), against a daily average gain of 0.03 percent since 1928.
“The S&P has outperformed on May 1, but it’s also the first day of the month, which has a higher statistical probability of being up,” said Silverblatt.
Here's a list of some major markets that will be closed:
Brazil
China
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong
India
Italy
Portugal
Russia
Singapore
Spain
Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street protestors are planning marches and demonstrationsacross the world on Tuesday. The movement, which started in New York City last September, addresses the income disparity and wealth distribution between the richest “one percent” and the rest of the population.
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