US trading floors silent as Superstorm Sandy passes

A single monitor remains on above a trading pit on the floor of the of the Chicago Board Options Exchange in Chicago, Oct. 29, 2012. The CBOE and other U.S. financial exchanges were closed today and will remain closed Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy.

Associated Press reports — On Monday, shortly after midday, the New York Stock Exchange announced it would close stock trading for a second day Tuesday due to a once-in-a-century storm. Once in a 124-year storm is more apt. The last time trading was halted for two consecutive days due to weather was in 1888.
This time, instead of snow drifts 40-feet high, surging water threatens to crest between 6 and 11 feet. And instead of the Blizzard of 1888, it is the more benign sounding, but equally disruptive, Hurricane Sandy. 

Trading jackets, which traders are required to wear before entering the trading floor, hang in the coatroom at the Chicago Board Options Exchange in Chicago, Oct. 29.

The trading floor at the Chicago Board Options Exchange sits deserted in Chicago, Oct.29.

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange sits empty of traders in New York, Oct. 29. Trading has rarely stopped for weather. A blizzard led to a late start and an early close on Jan. 8, 1996, according to the exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext. The NYSE shut down on Sept. 27, 1985 for Hurricane Gloria.