Hurricane Sandy shuts down NYSE

said.
“In consultation with other exchanges and market participants, NYSE Euronext (NYX) will close its markets on Monday, October 29, 2012 and pending confirmation on Tuesday, October 30, 2012,” the operator said in a statement on Sunday.
Earlier, the NYSE planned to suspend only floor operations, but continue electronic trading. However, even if Hurricane Sandy knocks out power for lower Manhattan, the NYSE can switch to its back-up power generators for electricity.
“We support the consensus of the markets and the regulatory community that the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities, and safety must be our first priority,”  NYSE Euronext pointed out, after revising its earlier decision.
The operator of the Nasdaq stock exchange issued a similar statement.
Trading has rarely stopped for weather.
A blizzard led to a late start and an early close on January 8, 1996, according to the exchange’s parent company, NYSE Euronext. The NYSE shut down on March 27, 1985 for Hurricane Gloria.
The longest suspension in trading at the NYSE since the Great Depression occurred following the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, when the exchange closed for four days.
Sandy was expected to hook left towards the mid-Atlantic coast and come ashore late yesterday or early today, most likely in New Jersey, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.
Forecasters said the monster combination could bring close to a 25cm of rain, a potentially lethal storm surge and punishing winds extending hundreds of kilometres outwards from the storm’s centre. It could also dump up to half a metre of snow in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.
Meanwhile, thousands of flights to and from the east coast of the United States have been cancelled because of the growing threat from the deadly hurricane.
Middle Eastern, European, Asian and US airlines have grounded flights in and out of America’s eastern seaboard as 560km wide Sandy prepared to make landfall late yesterday.
British Airways cancelled flights to and from New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Baltimore. — AFP- dailymail.co.uk-CNN.