(Bloomberg) — Stock exchanges plan to open in the U.S. despite predictions that a blizzard will deliver several feet of snow to the New York area on Tuesday.
Itll be business as usual at the New York Stock Exchange, according to its owner, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. The NYSEs sister exchanges as well as the markets run by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and Bats Global Markets Inc. also plan normal sessions on Monday and Tuesday. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association recommended debt markets open, and CME Group Inc.s Nymex, a New York-based energy futures market, said it plans to open.
As much as 24 inches (61 centimeters) of snow may fall in New York, according to the National Weather Service. Governors and mayors in the region have warned people to prepare for the storm and stay off the roads.
Weather last shut American equity markets in October 2012 in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. That two-day halt was the longest weather-related shutdown since the 1800s. In the months that followed, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission mandated more testing of disaster-preparedness programs. The last time snow prompted a NYSE shutdown was 1996.
All physical and electronic operations will be fully available with core operations staff and market participants on site, according to a statement from NYSE.
Nasdaq said: As demonstrated during Hurricane Sandy, we have comprehensive contingency plans in place to maintain the operational integrity of the markets.
Business as Usual
A Bats spokesman said it was business as usual at the company and expected it to remain that way for the remainder of the week.
The 10 U.S. stock exchanges owned by ICE, Nasdaq and Bats handle about two-thirds of volume, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
NYSE updated its plans for opening markets during emergencies in mid-2013. In case of future crises, transactions would shift to the all-electronic NYSE Arca platform if the people who normally run the New York Stock Exchange were unable to get to work. During emergencies, NYSE usually houses floor workers in hotels near its 11 Wall Street headquarters.
Nasdaqs back-up center is in Ashburn, Virginia, while Bats and NYSE both house their secondary systems in a data center in Chicago.
The storm caused a change of plans in the Treasury market. The U.S. government department decided to sell four-week bills on Monday rather than Tuesday because of the snow. Tuesdays auction of two-year notes was moved to Wednesday, and Wednesdays sale of five-year notes was shifted to Thursday.
