New York bourse to test new storm plan

NEW YORK: NYSE Euronext plans to test a new contingency plan to help resume stalled US equity trading, and added that its famed trading floor is not damaged by Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms to hit the US.


US stock markets were closed for a second day yesterday, as Wall Street turns its attention to whether markets would be able to resume functioning on the month’s final trading day today.

Today is a key trading day because it marks the end of the month, when traders price portfolios.

If the NYSE headquarters and trading floor are unavailable today, trading in NYSElisted securities will be executed on the Arca exchange, the exchange operator said in a notice issued to traders late on Monday.

“We stress that, as of now, there has been no damage to the NYSE Euronext headquarters that would impair trading floor operations,” NYSE said in the notice.

The contingency plan was described as “precautionary” given the unpredictability of the storm that has flooded parts of New York City.

Nasdaq OMX said in a trader alert late on Monday that it will operate its production system in a testing capacity from 1130 GMT to 1600 GMT.

In the event that the markets are able to open today but the NYSE headquarters and trading floor in lower Manhattan are unavailable for trading, NYSE Arca would open and
trade Tape A equities as usual. Reuters