NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Wall Street is back in business, but it’s not quite business as usual, with much of Manhattan’s financial district still in the dark Thursday and many market participants unable to get there in any case.
“The fact is there is limited manpower; not all the traders have access to trading,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, who questions the New York Stock Exchange’s decision to reopen Wednesday, two days after Hurricane Sandy hit.
The NYSE “should never have opened up,” said Cardillo, who went to work Wednesday after hearing trading would resume.
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The resumption of trade Wednesday came on the final day of the month, typically a heavier-than-usual volume day on Wall Street. But on Wednesday, that was not the case.
Trading was impacted “like any business. You’d hope we’d have pent-up demand to make up for investments, but you didn’t see three days of trading wrapped into one yesterday,” said Hogan at Lazard.
The primary factor behind what appeared to be another relatively low volume trading day on Thursday is “we can’t get all the players back to work,” said Hogan, who typically spends most of his work week in Manhattan, but this week was working from Lazard’s Boston office.
