BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//financecalendar.com - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:financecalendar.com X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.financecalendar.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for financecalendar.com REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:UTC BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:UTC DTSTART:20250101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261225T000000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261225T235959 DTSTAMP:20260727T172400 CREATED:20260607T113236Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260607T113236Z UID:1349-1798156800-1798243199@www.financecalendar.com SUMMARY:NYSE/NASDAQ: Christmas 2026 DESCRIPTION:Home\n ›\n Events\n ›\n Economic Indicators\n ›\n NYSE/NASDAQ: Christmas 2026\n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Economic Indicators \n \n \n Low Impact\n \n \n NYSE/NASDAQ: Christmas 2026\n US equity and derivatives markets will be fully closed on Friday\, December 25\, 2026\, for Christmas Day\, a federal public holiday. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq will also close early at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday\, December 24\, 2026\, Christmas Eve. The two-day closure pattern — an early close on Christmas Eve followed by a full closure on Christmas Day — is a consistent feature of the US market holiday calendar and creates a three-day trading break from Thursday afternoon\, December 24\, through Sunday\, December 27. Full normal trading hours resume on Monday\, December 28\, 2026. The closure falls in the final week of 2026\, a period already characterised by light volumes and year-end portfolio positioning. \n \n \n \n Friday\, December 25\, 2026 \n \n \n \n 6 min read\n \n \n \n \n Finance Calendar Editorial\n \n \n \n\n \n \n At a Glance\n \n \n Event\n NYSE/NASDAQ: Christmas 2026\n \n \n Date\n December 25\, 2026\n \n \n Category\n Economic Indicators\n \n \n Impact\n Low\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \nWhat is the NYSE Christmas Holiday?\nChristmas Day\, December 25\, is one of nine annual market holidays observed by the NYSE Group. It is a federal public holiday in the United States and a public holiday across most of the world’s major financial centres\, making Christmas one of the few dates when global equity markets in New York\, London\, Frankfurt\, Tokyo\, and Sydney are simultaneously closed or operating on reduced hours. The consistency of closures across jurisdictions makes the Christmas week a low-liquidity period for cross-border trading\, FX execution\, and international settlement. \nIn 2026\, Christmas Day falls on a Friday. When December 25 is a Friday\, the market observes the standard Christmas closure on the day itself\, with an early close of 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the preceding Thursday\, December 24. This gives the Christmas 2026 market break a particularly extended character: markets close early on the afternoon of Thursday\, December 24\, are fully closed on Friday\, December 25\, and do not reopen until Monday\, December 28\, creating a two-and-a-half-day effective closure for equity market participants. \nThe week of December 28 is the final trading week of 2026\, covering December 28\, 29\, 30\, and 31 — with the last trading day of the year on Thursday\, December 31. This period is historically marked by very thin volumes\, year-end rebalancing activity\, index reconstitution effects\, and the so-called Santa Claus rally window\, which many market observers define as the final five trading days of one year and first two of the next. \nAt a Glance\n\nEarly close: Thursday\, December 24\, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1:15 p.m. for eligible options)\nFull market closure: Friday\, December 25\, 2026 (Christmas Day)\nMarkets closed: NYSE\, Nasdaq\, CBOE\, US options exchanges\, US bond markets (SIFMA full close)\nCME futures: Equity futures early close December 24; closed December 25; reopen Sunday\, December 27 at 5:00 p.m. CT\nNext full trading session: Monday\, December 28\, 2026\nFinal trading day of 2026: Thursday\, December 31\, 2026\n\nChristmas 2026: Markets and Trading Schedule\nThe NYSE Group has designated Friday\, December 25\, 2026\, as a full market holiday\, and Thursday\, December 24\, as an early-close day. On December 24\, equity trading will proceed normally from the 9:30 a.m. Eastern opening until the early close at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Options markets will close at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time. No late-day session or extended hours will be available on December 24. On December 25\, all trading will be suspended entirely. \nThe Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) recommends a 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time early close for US Treasury and fixed income markets on December 24\, and a full close on December 25. Bond market participants should plan accordingly: trades executed in the morning of December 24 may face delayed settlement due to the early close\, and transactions in progress through year-end should account for the Christmas window when calculating settlement dates and counterparty obligations. \nCME Group equity index futures will operate on an abbreviated schedule around Christmas. Futures typically enter an early close period on December 24 and are fully closed December 25\, reopening for electronic trading on Sunday\, December 27\, at 5:00 p.m. Central Time (6:00 p.m. Eastern). Traders in commodity futures\, interest rate futures\, and foreign exchange futures should verify specific holiday schedules with CME Group\, as product-specific rules may differ from the equity futures schedule. \nWhy the Christmas Week Matters for Markets\nThe week of December 21-25\, 2026\, coincides with the end of the key December economic data flow and arrives immediately after the major central bank decisions of 2026. The FOMC Rate Decision December 2026 is scheduled for December 9-10\, and the Bank of England MPC Rate Decision December 2026 follows on December 17. By Christmas week\, the full monetary policy backdrop for 2026 will be established. Equity\, bond\, and currency markets will enter the holiday with known policy rates and forward guidance from the world’s major central banks\, making the Christmas closure period primarily about year-end positioning rather than policy surprise risk. \nYear-end rebalancing is the dominant theme in the days surrounding Christmas. Institutional investors — including pension funds\, sovereign wealth funds\, and multi-asset allocators — must bring portfolios in line with target weights before December 31. This can produce atypical buying or selling pressure in certain asset classes\, particularly in equities with large year-to-date gains or losses\, and in government bond markets as funds adjust duration. The combination of these flows with low liquidity in Christmas week can amplify short-term price movements that do not reflect fundamental changes in value. \nThe US Personal Income and Outlays (PCE) report for December 2026 is scheduled for release on December 23\, two days before Christmas. This report includes the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation (the PCE price index) and will be the last major economic data print before year-end. Markets may enter the Christmas break with either relief or concern depending on this reading\, as a significant surprise to the PCE figure close to year-end can shift 2027 rate expectations before participants return in January. \nThe Christmas-to-New-Year Trading Window\nThe period from December 28 to December 31 — the four trading days between Christmas and New Year — is one of the most unusual stretches of the financial calendar. Volumes are at their annual lows\, with many institutional desks operating on skeleton staffing and the bulk of macro trading activity already concluded before the holiday. Price movements during this period are often driven by index rebalancing\, tax-loss harvesting\, and window dressing (fund managers adjusting holdings to reflect well for year-end reports) rather than by fundamental news. \nThe Santa Claus rally — commonly defined as a tendency for the S&P 500 to generate positive returns in the final five trading days of one year and first two of the next — is widely discussed but historically inconsistent in magnitude and reliability. Whether such a pattern materialises in 2026 will depend heavily on the macro environment entering year-end: in years where inflation\, recession risk\, or monetary tightening have been dominant themes\, the seasonal tendency has frequently been overridden by fundamental pressures. Investors should treat seasonals as a backdrop context rather than a reliable trading signal. \nSettlement and Operational Implications\nThe early close on December 24 and the full closure on December 25 create specific settlement timing for equity trades. Under T+1 settlement rules\, trades executed on the full session of Thursday\, December 24 (before 1:00 p.m. Eastern)\, will settle on Monday\, December 28\, with the Friday holiday excluded from the settlement count. Trades executed before the 1:00 p.m. early close must go through the settlement system as normal\, and same-day settlement requests will not be accommodated for the post-Christmas holidays. \nYear-end settlement pressure is an additional consideration. Trades that must settle before December 31 — to book year-end gains or losses\, satisfy regulatory capital requirements\, or meet fund reporting deadlines — need to be executed no later than December 30\, the second-to-last trading day of 2026. Operations and treasury teams should build a settlement schedule around the Christmas closure and the short final trading week to avoid unintended year-end timing issues. \nRelated Events\n\nFOMC Rate Decision December 2026 — The Federal Reserve’s final policy meeting of 2026\, establishing the interest rate backdrop heading into the Christmas and year-end period.\nUS Personal Income and Outlays (PCE) December 2026 — Released December 23\, just before Christmas; the last major economic data print of 2026 and a key input to 2027 rate expectations.\nBank of England MPC Rate Decision December 2026 — The UK’s final monetary policy decision of 2026\, shaping cross-Atlantic rate differentials into the holiday period and new year.\n\nFrequently Asked Questions\nWhen do US markets close for Christmas 2026?\nUS equity markets close early at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday\, December 24\, 2026 (Christmas Eve). Markets are fully closed on Friday\, December 25\, 2026 (Christmas Day). The next full trading session is Monday\, December 28\, 2026\, which opens at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time as normal. Options markets close at 1:15 p.m. Eastern Time on December 24. \nDo global markets also close for Christmas?\nMost of the world’s major equity exchanges close on or around December 25\, though the specific dates vary by country. The London Stock Exchange (LSE) closes on December 25 and December 26 (Boxing Day). Euronext exchanges (Paris\, Amsterdam\, Brussels) typically close on December 25. The Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) do not observe Christmas as a market holiday and trade normally. Currency and FX markets\, while technically open 24 hours\, experience significantly reduced liquidity around Christmas as European and US bank traders are absent. International investors should verify market hours for each jurisdiction. \nWhat is the last trading day of 2026?\nThe last trading day of 2026 is Thursday\, December 31\, 2026. US equity markets will be open for a normal session from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. New Year’s Day 2027 falls on a Friday\, January 1\, which will be a full market holiday. 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