Hurricane Sandy shuts U.S markets, stocks fall

October Hurricane Sandy shut down the major US financial markets on Monday, the first unplanned shutdown since September 2001.

Stocks on the Dow slid 99 points in premarket trading, and several companies postponed earnings reports due to Hurricane Sandy, the Associated Press reports.

All major U.S stock and options exchanges remained closed Monday with Hurricane Sandy nearing landfall on the East Coast.

There had been plans to allow electronic trading to go forward Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, but with all mass transit shut down in and out of the city, the risks were determined to be too great.

The Nasdaq and the CME Group in Chicago will also close. CME Group’s Nymex headquarters and New York trading floor are located in a mandatory evacuation zone in Manhattan.

Its New York trading floor will be closed, but electronic markets were functioning.

Benchmark oil for December delivery fell 61 cents to $85.67 a barrel.

The New York Stock Exchange could remain closed Tuesday as well, depending on the severity of the storm. If that should occur, it would be the first time since 1888 that a weather-related event caused a two-day shutdown. The cause in 1888 was a blizzard that left drifts as high as 40 feet (12.2 meters) in the streets.