Market Session & Holiday Calendar

Direct Answer

The market session and holiday calendar shows whether U.S. equity markets are open right now and looks up any date to identify a full trading day, market holiday, or early-close half-day for NYSE and Nasdaq. Session times convert automatically to your local timezone.

What a Calendar Answers and What It Leaves Open

A session calendar answers whether the market is open and when it closes. That is a narrow question and a common source of error, which makes a lookup worth performing rather than an assumption worth making, particularly around a week that contains a holiday.

What it does not answer is whether trading conditions will be normal. A session can be open and thin, open and dominated by a scheduled event, or open with an early close that concentrates activity into fewer hours. Knowing the hours is the start of that assessment rather than the end of it.

Extended sessions sit outside the headline hours and vary by broker. Whether an account can trade before the open or after the close, and within which windows, is a firm-level arrangement rather than a market-wide one.

Schedules are published in advance and occasionally changed, including unscheduled closures. A calendar reflects what was known when it was compiled, and for anything consequential the exchange's own notice is the authority.

Educational tool only. Session times and holiday dates shown are based on NYSE and Nasdaq published schedules for U.S. equity markets. Always verify with your broker before placing time-sensitive orders. This tool does not constitute trading advice.

Current Market Status

Times are computed from your browser clock in U.S. Eastern Time (ET). The tool automatically adjusts for Eastern Standard Time (EST, UTC−5) and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT, UTC−4) based on the U.S. DST schedule. It does not account for exchange-specific delays, technical disruptions, or regulatory halts.

Half-days: regular session closes at 1:00 PM ET and no after-hours session is available through the exchange (some brokers differ).

Date Lookup

Enter any date to see whether U.S. equity markets are open, closed for a holiday, or closing early.

2026 NYSE & Nasdaq Holiday Schedule

U.S. equity markets (NYSE, Nasdaq, and most national securities exchanges) observe the same federal and exchange holidays. For a given holiday, all regular-hours and extended-hours sessions on that date are cancelled unless otherwise noted.

• Thu, Jan 1 New Year's Day Full close
• Mon, Jan 19 Martin Luther King Jr. Day Full close
• Mon, Feb 16 Presidents' Day (Washington's Birthday) Full close
• Fri, Apr 3 Good Friday Full close
• Mon, May 25 Memorial Day Full close
• Fri, Jun 19 Juneteenth National Independence Day Full close
• Fri, Jul 3 Independence Day (observed, July 4 falls on Saturday) Full close
• Mon, Sep 7 Labor Day Full close
• Thu, Nov 26 Thanksgiving Day Full close
• Fri, Nov 27 Day after Thanksgiving Half-day (closes 1:00 PM ET)
• Thu, Dec 24 Christmas Eve Half-day (closes 1:00 PM ET)
• Fri, Dec 25 Christmas Day Full close

Session Times by City

The table below shows NYSE and Nasdaq regular session hours converted to common global financial center time zones. Times adjust for each city's local DST rules, values below use U.S. summer (EDT, UTC−4) as the reference, which applies from mid-March through early November.

+1 indicates the following calendar day. London, Frankfurt, Sydney, and other cities shift their own clocks at different times from the U.S., during the brief spring and autumn transition windows, the hours above may be off by one hour. Verify against a live world clock during transition weeks.

How This Tool Works

Session status calculation

The live session status reads your browser's system clock, converts it to U.S. Eastern Time using the UTC offset appropriate for the current date (EDT, UTC−4, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November; EST, UTC−5, otherwise), and then checks:

1. Whether the current date is a weekend (Saturday or Sunday). Weekends are always closed for U.S. equity trading.
2. Whether the current date matches a known holiday in the tool's internal calendar. Holiday dates through 2027 are hard-coded from published exchange schedules.
3. Whether the current date is a known half-day. On half-days, the regular session closes at 1:00 PM ET instead of 4:00 PM ET, and no after-hours routing is available through the exchange.
4. Whether the current ET time falls within each session window.

The tool does not fetch live exchange data. It cannot detect unscheduled closures, technical disruptions, or emergency regulatory halts.

Date lookup methodology

When you enter a date, the tool checks it against the same internal holiday list and classifies it as:

• Weekend: Saturday or Sunday, equity markets closed. Note that U.S. futures markets (CME) begin trading Sunday evenings.
• Full holiday close: A date matching a NYSE/Nasdaq holiday, all equity sessions cancelled for that date.
• Half-day (early close): A designated early-close date, regular session ends at 1:00 PM ET, pre-market runs as normal, no after-hours through the exchange.
• Regular trading day: A weekday with no holiday or half-day designation, full sessions available subject to normal exchange operations.

Holiday schedule conventions

When a holiday falls on a Saturday, NYSE and Nasdaq typically observe it on the preceding Friday. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the exchange typically observes it on the following Monday. Good Friday is a stock exchange holiday (not a federal holiday), federal offices may be open while equity markets are closed.

Worked example, Independence Day 2026

July 4, 2026 falls on a Saturday. Because exchanges do not observe holidays on Saturdays, the NYSE and Nasdaq close on Friday, July 3, 2026 instead. A user entering 2026-07-03 in the date lookup will receive: "Full holiday close, Independence Day (observed). NYSE and Nasdaq are closed. All regular and extended-hours sessions are cancelled." A user entering 2026-07-04 will receive: "Saturday, equity markets are closed. U.S. futures markets (CME) may trade normally."

Frequently Asked Questions

• What are the regular U.S. stock market hours?

  NYSE and Nasdaq regular (core) trading hours run from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. During regular hours, all order types are accepted, spreads are tightest, and volume is deepest. The opening and closing auctions, which set the official opening and closing prices, both occur within this window (at 9:30 AM and 4:00 PM ET, respectively). Regular hours are the reference period for all official price data, index calculations, and most benchmark orders.

• What is pre-market trading and when does it start?

  Pre-market trading runs from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET on trading days. It takes place on electronic communication networks (ECNs) like Arca, BATS, and Nasdaq's INET platform, not through the exchange's central limit order book. Pre-market sessions are characterized by thinner liquidity, wider bid-ask spreads, and higher price volatility relative to regular hours. Not all brokers provide pre-market access, and those that do often restrict order types to limit orders only. Prices established in pre-market are not official exchange prices, the official opening price is set by the 9:30 AM opening auction, not by any pre-market trade.

• What is after-hours trading and how does it differ from regular hours?

  After-hours trading runs from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET on trading days. Like pre-market, it operates through ECNs rather than the central exchange auction. Key differences from regular hours: (1) Only limit orders are typically accepted, market orders are not matched after the close. (2) Liquidity is thinner and spreads are wider, particularly after 6:00 PM ET. (3) After-hours trades receive a separate "T" session trade condition in the tape and do not affect the official closing price. (4) Some brokers close their ECN routing at 6:00 PM or 6:30 PM ET, earlier than the technical 8:00 PM ET end. After-hours prices frequently differ from the next morning's opening price because of overnight information flow.

• What happens on market holidays, can I still trade?

  On NYSE and Nasdaq holidays, all equity market sessions are cancelled: no pre-market, no regular hours, no after-hours. Exchange-listed stocks (NYSE, Nasdaq, NYSE American, CBOE BZX, and other national securities exchanges) are all closed simultaneously, so there is no secondary venue to route orders to within U.S. equity markets. Orders left open at the broker level are typically held and queued for the next trading day. Note the distinction from futures markets: CME Group futures (S&P 500 E-mini, Nasdaq-100 E-mini, crude oil, etc.) observe a different and more limited holiday schedule, futures often trade on U.S. equity holidays. Options markets (CBOE) observe the same schedule as equity markets.

• What is a half-day and when do markets close early?

  A half-day (early close) is a day when NYSE and Nasdaq end the regular session at 1:00 PM ET instead of 4:00 PM ET. Pre-market runs normally (4:00 AM, 9:30 AM ET) and the regular session opens at 9:30 AM ET, but the continuous session and closing auction take place at 1:00 PM ET. After-hours trading through the exchange is not available on half-days, though some broker platforms may still route to ECNs. NYSE Rule 52 designates the standard half-day dates: the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve (when Christmas falls on a weekday that is not itself a Monday holiday). The specific dates vary year to year depending on the calendar. For 2026: November 27 (Friday after Thanksgiving) and December 24 (Christmas Eve, a Thursday).

• Do the same holidays apply to all U.S. stocks and ETFs?

  Yes, with very few exceptions. All national securities exchanges registered with the SEC (NYSE, Nasdaq, CBOE BZX, NYSE Arca, NYSE American, IEX, MEMX, MIAX PEARL, and others) observe the same holiday and half-day schedule. An ETF listed on NYSE Arca and a stock listed on Nasdaq both have the same closure dates. The only meaningful exception is if a security is cross-listed on a foreign exchange, the foreign exchange observes its own country's holidays, not U.S. holidays, so a stock that trades on both the NYSE and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) may be accessible in London on a U.S. holiday, and vice versa. ADRs (American Depositary Receipts) trade on U.S. exchanges under U.S. hours and observe U.S. holidays regardless of the underlying company's home market schedule.

• Why do spreads widen and volume spike at the open and close?

  The widening and volatility at the open and close reflect two different mechanisms. At the open, continuous trading has been off for roughly 17.5 hours (or longer over weekends). Overnight news, earnings, macroeconomic data, and foreign market moves have accumulated. The opening auction resolves this information asymmetry in a single price-discovery event, but in the seconds and minutes immediately after, market makers and algorithmic traders are calibrating their quotes to reflect the new information environment. During this calibration window, spreads are wide because the true two-sided fair value is less certain. At the close, institutional investors executing end-of-day rebalances, index funds closing positions at the official closing price, and options hedgers rolling or expiring positions all converge in the closing auction window. This creates predictable volume concentration that market makers price into their spreads. Both effects are strongest in less-liquid names; large-cap stocks in an index typically see the spread premium dissipate within 5-15 minutes of the open and narrow again before 3:30 PM ET.

• Can I use this tool to verify my broker's hours or holiday schedule?

  This tool reflects published NYSE and Nasdaq exchange schedules, which govern when the central market venues operate. However, individual brokers may impose additional restrictions or exceptions: (1) Some brokers end extended-hours routing before the exchange's 8:00 PM ET cutoff. (2) Some brokers restrict pre-market access by account type or platform. (3) A small number of brokers offer 24-hour trading through internal matching on selected securities, these are broker-specific mechanisms, not exchange sessions. (4) International brokers operating in the U.S. may have platform maintenance windows that differ from U.S. market hours. Always confirm your specific broker's extended-hours policy, especially for time-sensitive orders around holidays and half-days. This tool is an educational reference, not a real-time data feed from any exchange or broker.

• How does a holiday in another market affect a U.S. trading session?

  When a major overseas market is closed, the flow that normally arrives from it is absent, which can leave U.S. sessions thinner even though the local calendar shows a full day. The effect is most visible in securities with international shareholder bases and in the hours that usually overlap with the closed market. A calendar covering one market answers when trading is possible, not how much participation to expect.

References

• NYSE: Hours & Calendars
• Nasdaq: US Stock Market Holiday Schedule
• FINRA: Extended Hours Trading