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Wall St may open tomorrow after storm

Tuesday, October 30 15:02:39

U.S. stock exchanges are looking at opening tomorrow after monster storm Sandy receded from New York, sources said, and the New York Stock Exchange is testing a new plan to help resume trading.

U.S. stock markets were closed on Monday and Tuesday. At least some market participants believe that opening on Wednesday is critical, because many traders need prices to value their portfolios at the end of the month.

The bond markets are also closed on Tuesday, with traders aiming to reopen on Wednesday.

JPMorgan Chase and Co, the largest U.S. bank, expects many employees will be able to return to buildings starting on Wednesday, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters.

Plans to resume trading will be complicated by the lingering effect of the storm on New York. Sandy is the worst storm to hit the city since at least 1938, and brought a record storm surge that could hobble New York's subway system for days.

If markets do open on Wednesday, there could be heavy selling, as investors whose fiscal years end in October look to get tax benefits from shedding losing stocks, said Eric Marshall, a mutual fund manager at Hodges Capital in Dallas.

If NYSE Euronext's New York Stock Exchange headquarters and trading floor are unavailable on Wednesday, trading in NYSE-listed securities will be executed on the Arca exchange, the exchange operator said in a notice issued to traders late Monday.

NYSE Arca was to offer firms the ability to test the opening and closing auctions on NYSE Arca on Tuesday from 8 a.m. Eastern time (ET) (1200 GMT) until noon ET, the exchange said. Opening auctions will run at 9:30 a.m. ET and closing auctions will run at noon, the exchange said.