Most markets closed Tuesday in honour of Ford

The Nasdaq Stock Market said it will close Tuesday as part of a national day of mourning to mark the funeral of President Ford. An announcement is expected from the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Other exchanges will likely follow suit. But there was some speculation that exchanges might try to open for at least part of the day, rather than have a four-day break from trading. This will be the longest idle stretch for the markets since the shutdown that followed Sept. 11, 2001.

The Federal Reserve Board also said it will close on Tuesday, Greg Ip reports. The minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting of December 12, 2006, originally scheduled for release on Jan. 2, will instead be released at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 3. The 12 regional Reserve Banks will be open and operating during normal business hours and will provide all financial services as usual.

CBOT To Honor Former U.S. President Gerald Ford on Tuesday, January 2, 2007

CHICAGO, IL, December 29, 2006 – The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT®), today announced the following schedule, in accordance with the National Day of Mourning in honor of former President Gerald R. Ford on January 2, 2007. All times listed refer to Central Standard Time.

Agricultural Products
Trading in Agricultural products on e-cbot® will open as normal with the 6:30 pm rotation on Monday, January 1, 2007, and will cease at the normal time of 6:00 am. Thereafter, trading in Agricultural products on e-cbot will be closed.

Trading in Agricultural products in open auction will be closed.

Interest Rate Products
Trading in Interest Rate products on e-cbot will open as normal with the 6:00 pm rotation on Monday, January 1, 2007 and will close early at 12:15 pm.

Trading in open auction will open at its normal 7:20 am and will close early at 12:00 noon.

Equity Index and Metals Products
Trading in Equity products and Metals products on e-cbot will open as normal with the 6:15 pm rotation on Monday, January 1, 2007. All trading in Equity products and Metals products will close early at 8:15 am.

Trading in open auction will be closed.

Dow Jones AIG Index Products
Trading in Dow Jones AIG Index products on e-cbot will be closed.

Interest Rate product prices will settle at noon on Tuesday, January 2, 2007. All other contract prices will be marked to their respective settlements for December 29, 2006. Tuesday, January 2, 2007 will be a regular delivery day for all products.

Regular CBOT trading hours will resume for Wednesday, January 3, 2007.

CME said Friday it plans to close its Commodity and Equity Index markets on Tuesday to observe the day of mourning of former President Gerald Ford, who died on Tuesday at the age of 93. CME also said the Foreign Exchange and Interest Rate markets will remain open until noon central time on Tuesday. All products trading on CME Globex, the exchange's electronic trading platform, will reopen at their regularly scheduled time Tuesday, for a trade date of Wednesday.

Thanks for the update DT, sounds like 4 day's off then.... back to work Wednesday ??!!

It certainly looks like it. Have a good break! Thanks for all your help and advice this year, like the preceding years.