Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, the anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I and the day we salute the men and women who have served our country in uniform. It's sort of a half-holiday for the markets: The stock markets are open, but the bond markets are closed.

There's a logical reason that no bonds would be traded today. Since Veterans Day is a federal holiday, the U.S. Treasury Department is closed for the day as well. Given that Treasury bills are such a significant part of a typical day's bond-trading activity, it makes sense that the bond market would shut down.

Stocks have never taken a Veterans Day holiday, but they did used to observe Veterans Day with a brief two-minute shutdown. That ended in 2007, so now, for stock traders, Veterans Day is business as usual.

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