"Is the stock market open today?" is one of the most searched questions in investing, and it matters beyond curiosity. A stop order you expected to protect you does nothing on a day exchanges are closed, and a half-day session can make prices jump around on very little volume. Knowing the calendar is the simplest risk control there is.
This guide lists the 2026 schedule, the early-close days, regular and extended hours, and how to set alerts around them.
Regular US Trading Hours
The NYSE and Nasdaq are open Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. That is 6.5 hours, and it applies year-round: exchanges follow Eastern Time, so when clocks change in your time zone the session moves with it.
Outside those hours many brokers offer pre-market and after-hours sessions. Volume is thinner and spreads are wider, so prices can swing more on smaller orders. See Pre-Market and After-Hours Trading for how those sessions work.
2026 NYSE Market Holidays
The exchange is fully closed on these days in 2026 (NYSE schedule, checked against Financial Modeling Prep's exchange calendar):
| Date | Holiday |
|---|---|
| Thursday, Jan 1 | New Year's Day |
| Monday, Jan 19 | Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
| Monday, Feb 16 | Washington's Birthday (Presidents' Day) |
| Friday, Apr 3 | Good Friday |
| Monday, May 25 | Memorial Day |
| Friday, Jun 19 | Juneteenth |
| Friday, Jul 3 | Independence Day (observed, because July 4 fell on a Saturday) |
| Monday, Sep 7 | Labor Day |
| Thursday, Nov 26 | Thanksgiving Day |
| Friday, Dec 25 | Christmas Day |
Two details trip people up. Good Friday is not a federal holiday, yet the stock market closes. And when a holiday lands on a Saturday, the exchange usually closes the Friday before, as with July 3 this year.
Early Closes: 1:00 p.m. ET
Two days remain in 2026 when stocks stop trading at 1:00 p.m. Eastern:
- Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving
- Thursday, December 24, Christmas Eve
Early-close sessions are short and volumes are usually light. A thin market can exaggerate moves, so orders placed in the final hour may fill at less favorable prices than you expect.
Days That Look Like Holidays but Are Not
Columbus Day (Indigenous Peoples' Day) and Veterans Day are federal holidays, and banks and the bond market may be closed, but stocks trade normally. Trading can be quieter, but the exchanges are open.
How Many Trading Days Are There in a Year?
Weekdays minus the closures above leaves 251 trading days in 2026. The chart for this article shows how they fall by quarter: 61 in Q1, 62 in Q2, and 64 each in Q3 and Q4. Months with a holiday, such as February, May and November, have fewer sessions, which matters if you measure anything per trading day.
Why the Calendar Matters for Your Orders and Alerts
- Stop orders and alerts are idle when the market is closed. Regular-session prices do not move on a holiday, so nothing triggers. Risk can build up over a long weekend and show itself at the next open as a gap. See Stock Gap Up and Gap Down Explained.
- Earnings and news do not stop for holidays. A report released before a long weekend is priced in at the next open.
- Settlement shifts. Trades settle on trading days, so a holiday pushes settlement out by a day.
- Options expiration moves. When a Friday expiration falls on a holiday, it moves earlier in the week.
Setting Alerts Around Market Closures
- Arm alerts before the break. Set price alerts on the stocks you hold the day before a holiday so they are live the moment trading resumes.
- Use levels, not guesses. Place alerts at the prices where you would reassess a position, above and below the current price.
- Add a volume alert for the first session back. Unusual volume at the open usually means something happened while the market was closed.
- Add earnings alerts. Reports often land around holiday weeks.
- Keep a watchlist for gap risk. Review the names most likely to gap after a long weekend.
Step-by-step setup is in How to Set Stock Price Alerts.
The Bottom Line
The stock market runs 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET on 251 days in 2026, with two remaining early closes and two remaining full closures. Put those dates on your calendar, set alerts ahead of them, and let notifications tell you when something moved while you were away.
This article is educational and is not investment advice. Schedules are published by the exchanges and can change; confirm dates with NYSE or Nasdaq before relying on them.
