The East Coast blizzard disrupted financial markets across the country today. All expect to be open for regular hours tomorrow.
The New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq stock market as well as the Chicago, Pacific and other regional stock exchanges opened at 11 a.m. and closed at 2 p.m. EST. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange kept similar hours for its index futures, including its contracts on the Standard & Poor's 500, Nikkei 255 and Goldman Sachs Commodities Index, and closed at 2:15 p.m. The Chicago Board Options Exchange held the same schedule for its index and individual stock options; for its interest-rate options, it closed at 11:45 a.m.
Unlike the others, the Chicago Board of Trade kept its regular trading hours.
Preliminary volume for the day on the NYSE was 131 million shares, down from the average 350 million shares a day last year.
Meanwhile, money managers on the East Coast worked out of their homes and rented hotel rooms, if necessary, to keep operations going. A spokeswoman for Alliance Capital said employees were using home computers and the few employees who could make it to the office to manage the firm's assets. Spokeswomen for both Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments said employees checked into nearby hotel rooms in anticipation of the storm.
With an average 8.15% rise, South African equity funds were the top performers in the three-month period ended Nov. 30, according to Micropal Emerging Market Fund Monitor. Moroccan equity funds were No. 2, with an average 5.06% gain.
The worst performing funds during the period were Pakistani equity funds, which averaged a 26.86% plunge, according to Micropal, which measured more than 1,300 emerging markets funds with nearly $125 billion in assets.
Among specific funds, Daehan International Investment Trust, a Korean equity fund, posted a 27.65% gain in the three months, making it the best performer for the period. During the first 11 months of 1995, the best performing fund was Toronto Trust Argentina, up 51.9%, followed by Spes Bona Investment Co., investing in South African equities, up 43.65%, and the Nigeria Emerging Markets Fund, up 32.69%, Micropal reported.
