Is the stock market open on Christmas Eve and Christmas? The answer to that question is no-ish. That's because Christmas Eve is an early closure day for Wall Street, while both the stock and bond markets are closed for the entirety of Christmas Day.
This year, Christmas Eve falls on Tuesday, December 24, so the stock market closes at 1 pm Eastern time, and the bond market will close at 2 pm. Christmas Day is on Wednesday, December 25.
The stock market has built up impressive gains so far this year, aided in part by easing inflation, the Federal Reserve's rate-cutting efforts and enthusiasm over a Republican sweep in D.C. As of this writing, the Nasdaq Composite is up 32% for the year to date, while the S&P 500 is 25% higher and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has added 14%.
While markets have had a slow start to the final month of the year, they could resume their momentum into year's end. According to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, no month is likely to be higher than December, with the S&P 500 closing up 74.3% of the time since 1950. And in an election year, that figure jumps to 83.3%.
Detrick adds that the December Fed meeting marks the last big news event before the end of the year. "Remember, stocks tend to do well in the absence of news and this is why strength around holidays tends to occur," he says.
Are banks open on Christmas? The answer to that question is no. Christmas Day is one of several bank holidays in 2024, so banks will not be open.
Below, we feature a full schedule of all stock market holidays and bond market holidays for 2024.
2024 stock market holidays
2024 bond market holidays
* This is the recommended bond market holiday schedule from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA). This schedule is subject to change.
