Back
Global Markets Shorten New Year’s Eve Hours; Multiple Exchanges Close Early

Global Markets Shorten New Year’s Eve Hours; Multiple Exchanges Close Early

On Dec. 31, several Asia-Pacific and European markets reduced trading hours or closed entirely ahead of New Year celebrations.

Fact Check
The evidence from multiple high-authority sources consistently supports the statement that both the CME and ICE had early closures for the Christmas holiday. For the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), there is a direct primary source from the ICE website itself, described as a PDF titled "Trading Hours: Christmas and New Year Holidays." This document is the most definitive evidence possible for ICE's schedule. This is corroborated by S&P Global, a highly authoritative secondary source, which explicitly lists ICE as having 'early close' days for the holiday.For the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), numerous pages on the official CME Group website directly reference a calendar for "CME Group holiday hours," confirming the existence of a special holiday schedule. The claim of an "early close" is explicitly supported by two strong secondary sources: S&P Global, which mentions 'early close' days for CME, and Barchart.com, which reports on CME products heading into an 'Early Close' on Christmas Eve.While two of the provided sources are unreliable due to major discrepancies between their URLs and summaries, they are outliers. The remaining credible sources, including primary documents and reputable financial data providers, are in complete agreement. There is no conflicting evidence among the reliable sources.
Summary

On Dec. 31, trading schedules across global markets were shortened due to New Year’s Eve. Japan, Korea, Germany, and Italy markets remained closed, while Australia ended trading at 11:10 Beijing time. Hong Kong and major European exchanges operated abbreviated sessions, and China’s futures markets did not hold night trading.

Terms & Concepts
  • Futures: Standardized contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a later date; also common in crypto markets.
  • Derivatives: Financial instruments whose value comes from an underlying asset, including commodities, equities, or cryptocurrencies; examples are futures and options.