The Stock Market is Closed for Washington’s Birthday

The New York Stock Exchange is closed today in honor of George Washington’s birthday. That’s right — on the NYSE, it’s not President’s Day. My apologies to Millard Fillmore but here’s the explanation from the NYSE:

Washington’s Birthday was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The Monday Holiday Law, enacted in 1968, shifted the date of the commemoration of Washington’s Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, but neither that law nor any subsequent law changed the name of the holiday from Washington’s Birthday to President’s Day. Although the third Monday in February has become popularly known as President’s Day, the NYSE’s designation of Washington’s Birthday as an Exchange holiday (Rule 51) follows the form of the federal holiday outlined above (section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code).

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 20th, 2012 at 11:11 am

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