Stock trading will be closed in the US for a second day today as 'superstorm' Sandy hits New York and the east coast.
Bond trading will also be closed.
The last time the New York Stock Exchange was closed for weather was in 1985 because of Hurricane Gloria.
It will be the first time since 1888 that the exchange will have been closed for two consecutive days because of weather. The cause then was a blizzard that left snow drifts as high as 12m in the streets.
The last time the New York Stock Exchange had an unplanned closing was after the attacks of September 2001.
Wall Street had originally prepared to open for business yesterday with limited staffing after a mass transit shutdown in New York, booking hotel rooms for key employees and leaning on offices in other cities.
The decision to close stock and options markets came after regulators, exchanges and dealers discussed the unknowns that would have been tested if the markets opened, sources familiar with the situation said.
Some bank offices in lower Manhattan's Financial District are in evacuation zones and most non-critical staff and employees who do not rely on high-speed systems, including some investment bankers, were asked to work from home.
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq said they intend to reopen on Wednesday.
Areas around New York's Financial District were part of a mandatory evacuation zone.
The uncertainty generated by the storm comes at the start of a big week in the US. This is the last full week before next Tuesday's presidential election and culminates on Friday with the release of monthly jobs data, which many analysts think could have an impact on the vote.
The Labor Department said it still hoped to release the data on Friday but that weather remained a factor. Much of the federal government in Washington was shut down yesterday.
Some companies were postponing quarterly earnings reports scheduled for release early this week. So far, that includes Pfizer and Thomson Reuters. Burger King reported on schedule,and said its third-quarter net income fell 83% as revenue was hurt by the stronger dollar.
Sandy unlikely to damage US economy - analysts
Superstorm Sandy will cause temporary disruptions for companies, travelers and consumers but will not likely slow the US economy in the final quarter of 2012, analysts have said.
Economic growth lost to the storm can likely be restored once reconstruction begins, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics noted.
"Assuming the storm simply disrupts things for a few days and it doesn't do significant damage to infrastructure, then I don't think it will have a significant national impact," the economist said.
But the economic impact could be more severe if the storm damages a port or a major manufacturing facility such as an oil refinery, he added.
Preliminary estimates are that storm damage will range between $10 billion and $20 billion. That could top last year's Hurricane Irene, which cost $15.8 billion.
If so, Sandy would be among the 10 most costly hurricanes in US history. But it would still be far below the worst - Hurricane Katrina, which cost $108 billion and caused 1,200 deaths in 2005.
Aside from the human toll, hurricanes, like other disasters, can cause big losses for insurance companies and disrupt businesses and work patterns for days or weeks. But they can also cause spikes in economic activity, once homes and buildings are rebuilt or repaired.
And Americans may spend more before the storm when they stock up on extra food, water and batteries. Spending can also rise afterward as households restock.
The overall economy expanded at an annual rate of 2% in the third quarter of this year.
CoreLogic, a private data provider in the US, estimates that there are 284,000 homes worth about $88 billion in the hurricane's path.
