Independence Day

Independence Day is an annual NYSE holiday closure published by New York Stock Exchange LLC, which operates as NYSE Group. NYSE Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE). The entry appears in the Holidays and Trading Hours calendar and the annual holiday release, and it is governed by NYSE Rule 7.2. It covers all NYSE markets once each year.

These are the five cash equity markets: New York Stock Exchange, NYSE American, NYSE Arca Equities, NYSE Chicago and NYSE National. The release also names NYSE American Options, NYSE Arca Options and NYSE Bonds.

The entry is only a market-status item, open versus closed. It is not an economic statistic, survey, index or rate. So it has no level, value, sample, panel, weighting or seasonal adjustment, and it states no thresholds. It says nothing about the economy or market performance.

It is not the federal holiday law itself, and it is not the bond market schedule, whose early-close times can differ.

The Exchange publishes the calendar for coming years together, and Rule 7.2 governs this entry. The closure lasts the full trading day, with no sessions at all. On open days the core trading session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

When July 4 falls on Saturday, the prior Friday closes instead. When it falls on Sunday, the next Monday closes instead. The only exception is unusual business conditions, such as the end of a monthly or yearly accounting period.

A neighboring day can be an early close rather than a closure. Each market then closes at 1:00 p.m., eligible options at 1:15 p.m., and the named late trading sessions at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The entry is published with the full yearly holiday list. It starts with New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Washington's Birthday, Good Friday and Memorial Day.

It continues with Juneteenth National Independence Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. There are no data revisions, since no figures are estimated. The schedule itself can still change through a new filing or calendar release.

It follows no market data. Three fixed calendar elements decide the outcome.

• Fixed-date element: July 4 of each year is the holiday being observed.
• Weekend-observance shift element: Saturday moves the closure to the prior Friday, and Sunday moves it to the next Monday.
• Closure-type element: A full-day closure with no sessions, or an early close on a neighboring day. The early close ends at 1:00 p.m., 1:15 p.m. for eligible options and 5:00 p.m. for late sessions.

In 2021 July 4 fell on Sunday, so the market closed on Monday, July 5, 2021 as the observed day. The release covering 2021, 2022 and 2023, issued in December 2020, recorded this, and it set 2022 as Monday, July 4, 2022 with no shift. It set 2023 as Tuesday, July 4, 2023, a full closure, with Monday, July 3, 2023 as an early close. An older instance shows the same Saturday rule: 2020 was listed as Friday, July 3, 2020, since July 4, 2020 fell on Saturday.

Nothing is computed. NYSE Rule 7.2 sets a two-step test that fixes the closed day.

1. July 4 rule: The Exchange stays closed for the full day when the date is July 4.
2. Weekend shift: A Saturday July 4 closes the prior Friday, and a Sunday July 4 closes the next Monday, except under unusual business conditions.
3. Illustrated: In 2022 July 4 was Monday, so that Monday closed with no shift. In 2021 July 4 was Sunday, so Monday, July 5, 2021 closed as observed.