Stock markets subdued on memorial day
Associated Press
Wall Street marked the first anniversary of the terror attacks yesterday with remembrances of those who died and with subdued trading.
Trading was delayed for a memorial service at the World Trade Center site. By 11 a.m., most financial markets were open, but trading at the New York Stock Exchange started at noon after officials there finished taking part in the ceremonies a few blocks away.
Still, stocks were not heavy on the minds of those who gathered in New York's financial district, where the names of the thousands of victims were read and the strains of a Schubert string quartet were heard.
As Wall Street paused to mark the moment, people who work in the nation's financial heart said the day reminded them of just how much has changed in the past year.
Yesterday, many investors — individuals and institutional — were refraining from big trades as they focused on friends and family.
"This is in the back of my head every day and it never goes away," said Richie Weppler, who works on the floor of the American Stock Exchange. He wiped tears from his cheeks as he was coming out of Trinity Church, just up the street from the NYSE.
"This helps," he said, nodding at the church.
Weppler said he lost five co-workers in the attacks.
Many people were silent, some bowing their heads.
"I've never heard this whole area so quiet," one NYSE trader said.
When the day was done, the Dow Jones industrial average had closed down 21.44, or 0.3 percent, to 8,581.17, after rising as much as 124 earlier.
The broader market also gave up earlier gains to finish lower. The Nasdaq composite index fell 4.64, or 0.4 percent, to 1,315.45, retreating from a 27-point gain from earlier. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slipped 0.13 to 909.45, giving back an advance of 14.
"Today has an emotional quality to it, but nothing has changed fundamentally. ... You still have a soft economy," said Larry Wachtel, market analyst at Prudential Securities.
Market observers aren't reading too much into this week's trading as emotions run high on Wall Street and there is little economic or earnings news.
Volume was very light with just 841.74 million shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
After this week, analysts expect investors to return their focus to the economy.
"There is no question that people are extremely reflective of what this day meant and what this means for nation. ... All that said, from the investment perspective, it is extremely interesting that those who are paid to do this for a living are focused on getting beyond today. They still have their jobs and they are very information thirsty," said Bill Meade, managing director at RBC Capital Markets.
In the moments before trading began at noon, trader John Pickett spoke of three friends caught in the south tower before the second plane hit. One made it out. The others, who ventured back upstairs to retrieve a cell phone and a computer when a mistaken all-clear signal was given, perished.
"A lot of people down here on the floor lost a lot of colleagues, a lot of friends," he said. "Today really brings some closure."
He and other traders erupted in loud applause when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. George Pataki, former mayor Rudy Giuliani and Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey Pitt walked onto the NYSE floor.
And they cheered minutes later as New York City policeman Daniel Rodriguez sang the last words of "The Star-Spangled Banner," and officials sounded the opening bell.
Yesterday may remind Wall Street of what it lost, but today it will move on, the people who work here assured themselves, because it is a captive of its own inertia.
"I'm sure it will be back again tomorrow. It has to be," said Chris Wurtz, an employee at Deutsche Bank, pondering the future over a cigarette. "What choice do we have?"
Last year, the market shut down for four days following the attacks and stocks plunged when trading resumed, hitting their post-Sept. 11 lows on Sept. 21.
Advancing issues and decliners were about even on the NYSE yesterday.
