NEW YORK (AP) -
The New York Stock Exchange will reopen for
regular trading Wednesday after being shut down for two days because of
Hurricane Sandy.
The exchange said in a
statement Tuesday that its building and trading floor are fully
operational and that normal trading will resume at the usual starting
time of 9:30 a.m.
There had been erroneous
reports Monday that the exchange floor had flooded. Exchange spokesman
Ray Pellecchia said the exchange's building did not have any flooding or
damage.
Tuesday marks the first
time since 1888 that the NYSE remained closed for two consecutive days
due to weather. The last time was due to a massive snow storm.
Sections of Manhattan were inundated with water and power was shut off to thousands of people and businesses.
Dozens of companies have
postponed earnings reports this week because of the storm, but Ford
Motor Co. did release results for the third quarter that topped Wall
Street expectations.
Ford's revenue fell 3
percent to $32.1 billion because of the economic crisis in Europe and
falling sales in South America. The company exceeded Wall Street's
revenue forecast of $31.5 billion largely because of North America,
where revenue jumped 8 percent.
Global markets rebounded
Tuesday though trading was subdued in the wake of the storm that pounded
Wall Street, in addition to a broad swath of the East Coast.
In Europe, the FTSE 100
index of leading British shares was up 0.9 percent. Germany's DAX rose
0.9 percent and the CAC-40 in France was 0.8 percent higher.
Crude oil rose 11 cents to $85.63 Tuesday in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
U.S. bond trading was also closed Tuesday.
Stock index futures trading
closed at 9:15 a.m. Eastern Tuesday, though volume was very light. Dow
Jones industrial futures rose 8 points to 13,062. The broader S&P
futures added 3.50 points to 1,411.10. Nasdaq futures slipped 3.75
points to 2,655.25.
Earlier in Asia, trading
was mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 1 percent to close at 8,841.98.
South Korea's Kospi index rose 0.4 percent to 1,899.58 but Hong Kong's
Hang Seng index fell 0.4 percent to 21,428.58. Benchmarks in mainland
China also rose.
