Wall Street began to slowly come back to life on Wednesday, after being in the dark for two days due to Hurricane Sandy, which caused the first two-day market closure since the late 19th century.
In the early dawn, before sunrise, brokers were streaming through the darkened streets of Manhattan towards the New York Stock Exchange, one of the few illuminated buildings, thanks to its own generator, in an area that was left without power and public transport due to Sandy.
– I drove at 5:45 AM in complete darkness and the only lights I saw were red and blue on the exchange building. It seems our building was the only functional one – says Jonathan Corpina, partner at Meridian Equity Partners.
Hurricane Sandy caused immense damage and the first two-day closure of the New York Stock Exchange since 1888. There have been other extraordinary events that disrupted trading on Wall Street, such as Hurricane Gloria in 1985, but no one remembers a two-day market closure due to weather conditions, it is only recorded in the annals.
– There have been cases where the market closed earlier or opened later than usual, but it always operated. The opening of the exchange brought us relief after four days of uncertainty. Regardless of all preparations, no one could have predicted such a storm and flooding – says Ted Weisberg, president of Seaport Securities.
Not everything functioned as usual yesterday, as traders had to step outside the building to send emails or make phone calls because the mobile phone signal inside the exchange was weak. Despite the challenging working conditions, the trading volume yesterday was just slightly below average. About 6.3 billion shares changed hands on Wall Street and Nasdaq, while the average daily volume this year is 6.5 billion.
