US stock markets remained closed on Thursday, January 9, to observe a National Day of Mourning for former president Jimmy Carter.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq announced the suspension of trading activities on January 9.
The New York bourse will also fly the US national flag at half-staff throughout the mourning period.
The National Day of Mourning was declared by US President Joe Biden, following Carter’s demise at the age of 100.
The practice of closing equity markets to honour late US presidents dates back to 1865, following the assassination of president Abraham Lincoln.
On Wednesday, US stocks ended little changed as investors digested the impact of two conflicting sets of jobs data and a media report that said President-elect Donald Trump was mulling a national economic emergency declaration on inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 106.84 points, or 0.25%, to 42,635.20, the S&P 500 gained 9.20 points, or 0.16%, to 5,918.23 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 10.80 points, or 0.06%, to 19,478.88.
Eight of the 11 S&P 500 sectors posted gains, led by the healthcare index rising
Benchmark 10-year yields hita high of 4.73%, to retreat slightly to 4.677% later in the afternoon on Wednesday.
Investors on Wall Street are now bracing for Labor Department’s monthly jobs data due on Friday.
Jimmy Carter’s state funeral
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who struggled with a bad economy and a hostage crisis, was remembered during his state funeral on Thursday as a man who put honesty and kindness above politics.
Hundreds of mourners including all five living current and former US presidents were present at the Washington National Cathedral.
As the somber ceremony began, Carter’s flag-draped coffin was carried up the stone steps of the cathedral by a military honor guard after its trip from the Capitol, where his body had lain in state for two days.
Carter won the White House by defeating Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 US election, in the years following Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.