The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq reopened today after being forced to shut down due to super-storm Sandy that devastated a large part of US East Coast in particular New York and New Jersey this week.
The New York Stock Exchange was up and running on a generator, even as the major part of lower Manhattan was without any electricity due to the devastation caused by the super-storm, the worst to hit the country in decades.
This is for the first time in more than a century that NYSE has been closed for two consecutive days due to weather related events since 1888.
The New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell at about 9.30 am local time, ahead of which the NYSE officials had made elaborate arrangements including testing of its electronic systems and other major equipment.
Some 50 NYSE employees had stayed overnight to prepare for the reopening of the stock exchange after two days of unprecedented closer.
As the NYSE began its operations, industrial and consumer-staples shares led US stocks higher as officials hoped that they would have a normal trading.
“Out of this post-apocalyptic world that we’re all looking at, that’s a ray of good news, that they’re actually able to get the exchange open,” Keith Bliss, Senior Vice President at NYSE member firm Cuttone & Co, told The Wall Street Journal, after trading opened successfully.
In the minutes after the opening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by 65 points at 13173 and the S&P 500 added 5 points to 1416.
The Nasdaq Composite was flat.