Are Stocks Open on Memorial Day – Here’s What Investors Need to Know

TLDR

• The NYSE and Nasdaq are closed Monday, May 25, 2026, for Memorial Day
• Markets reopen at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday
• Bond markets and OTC markets are also closed for the holiday
• International markets including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Paris remain open
• The S&P 500 has averaged a 0.5% gain each May over the past 20 years

U.S. stock markets are shut for Memorial Day on Monday, May 25, 2026. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market will not open until Tuesday morning.

The holiday comes after a busy week on Wall Street. Investors were watching quarterly earnings from Nvidia and tracking movement in quantum computing stocks.

What Is Closed Today

Bond markets closed early on Friday and will stay closed through Monday. Over-the-counter markets are also shut for the day.

Major banks are closed too. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and JPMorgan Chase are all following the Federal Reserve’s holiday schedule.

Post offices are not operating today. The U.S. Postal Service observes Memorial Day as one of 11 holidays this year.

FedEx has suspended most of its services, though FedEx Custom Critical is still running. UPS is not offering standard pickup or delivery, but Express Critical service remains available around the clock.

International Markets Stay Open

Memorial Day is a U.S. federal holiday, so overseas exchanges are unaffected. The Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and Euronext Paris are all open for normal trading today.

How Markets Tend to Perform This Time of Year

The phrase “sell in May and go away” is often repeated by investors. The idea is that summer months bring weaker returns. The data tells a mixed story.

The S&P 500 has gained an average of 0.5% each May over the past 20 years. Over the last decade, that rises to around 1.5%.

June has averaged just 0.2% over 20 years, though the 10-year average is higher at around 1.9%. July tends to be stronger, with a 10-year average gain of 3.4%.

August brings modest returns. The S&P has averaged 0.9% in August over 10 years and 0.2% over 20 years.

September is historically the weakest month. The index has dropped an average of 1.3% in September over the past decade.

Some investors also watch for what is called the “holiday effect.” This refers to a tendency for markets to rise slightly before a holiday and drift afterward. Analysts link this partly to increased consumer spending and partly to lower trading volumes when many market participants take time off.

Markets will return to normal hours on Tuesday, May 27, opening at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

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