You’d be hard pressed to find any television on Wall Street not tuned to the US-Algeria game yesterday. And it showed.
Volume at the New York Stock Exchange at 11:30 a.m. ET, as the US-Algeria game was in its 72nd minute — tied at 0-0 — was at 347.6 million shares, 32 percent lower that its 10-day moving average at this hour.
Trading didn’t seriously pick up again until after Landon Donovan scored his goal in stoppage time at approximately 11:49 a.m. ET.
That was also around the same time England's game, which traders also were tuned into, had concluded.
Since the games are often played during market hours, World Cup games — like March Madness games — tend to affect volume. Around the world, the halt of markets can be more extreme.
On June 16, the day Brazil beat North Korea, the Sao Paulo stock exchange only traded 4.1 billion Reais, reportedly 39 percent less than the average for the past year.
The United States plays its next game against Ghana on Saturday on ABC at 2:30 p.m. ET. A special shoutout goes to my former ESPN colleague Mike Tirico who e-mailed me from South Africa to look into yesterday’s volume.
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