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Traders will have some time off from the stock market in observance of Good Friday and stock index futures will not be active.
The US bond market and the metals and commodities market, including Nymex crude oil and Comex-traded gold, will be closed as WELL. For those needing an exchange, cryptocurrencies will be available around the clock, with Bitcoin (BTC-USD) last changed hands above the $70,000 level.
There will also be the release of some economic data on Friday morning, including the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge. The personal consumption expenditure price index is expected to have risen 2.8% y/y in February, matching the same progress of the previous month. On a monthly basis, the core figure likely increased 0.3%, down from 0.4% in January. Central bank watchers today will also watch a speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell at 11:30 a.m. ET.
A bit of history: The NYSE exchange has been closed for Good Friday since at least 1864, when such registrations began, although the market holiday (which is not a federal holiday) probably dates back to 1792, when the exchange was officially founded on Wall Street. There were only three exceptions when the NYSE was open on Good Friday in 1898, 1906, and 1907.
What to watch: The S&P 500 Index (SP500) just concluded its best first quarter in five years, up more than 10% year to date. The benchmark index also posted 22 record closes in that span, reaching the 5,200 mark that even the most bullish of analysts had forecast for all of 2024. Any weakness did not continue for more than several sessions, with buying down and fresh money continuing to come out of the margins.