Stock Market Hours

Daily Schedule (Eastern Time)

Regular trading session9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET

The main trading session on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Volume is highest, bid-ask spreads are tightest, and most of the daily price discovery happens inside this window. Monday through Friday only.

Premarket trading4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET

Electronic trading before the regular session opens. Volume is much lighter than during regular hours, spreads are wider, and prices can move sharply on small orders. Not every brokerage gives clients access to the full premarket window.

After-hours trading4:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET

Electronic trading after the regular session closes. Earnings reports and major company news are often released into this window, so individual stocks can move sharply even though overall volume is low.

Overnight and weekends8:00 PM to 4:00 AM ET, Saturday and Sunday

No US equity trading. Quotes you see between sessions are the last extended-hours print and do not reflect new orders. Overseas markets and futures continue to trade, which is one reason the next regular session can open at a different price.

Holiday Closures

US stock exchanges close on a set list of holidays each year, including New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The exchanges also close early on the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve.

The official calendar is published by the NYSE and the NASDAQ each year. The session chip at the top of this page uses the regular weekly schedule and does not model holidays; for time-sensitive decisions, check the official calendar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the US stock market open today?

The US stock market follows a regular schedule: open Monday through Friday from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time, closed on weekends, and closed on US exchange holidays. The current session is shown at the top of this page based on Eastern Time.

What time does the stock market open?

The regular trading session on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ opens at 9:30 AM Eastern Time. Premarket trading begins earlier, typically at 4:00 AM ET on electronic networks.

What time zone is the stock market in?

US stock market hours are quoted in Eastern Time (ET), which is the time zone of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Eastern Time observes daylight saving, so it is EST (UTC-5) in the winter and EDT (UTC-4) in the spring and summer. If you are on Pacific Time, regular trading runs from 6:30 AM to 1:00 PM PT; on Central Time, from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM CT; on Mountain Time, from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM MT. London market participants see the U.S. regular session run roughly from 2:30 PM to 9:00 PM local time, depending on which side of the spring and autumn clock changes both zones are currently on.

What time does the stock market close?

The regular trading session closes at 4:00 PM Eastern Time. After-hours trading on electronic networks continues until 8:00 PM ET.

Is the stock market open on weekends?

No. US stock exchanges are closed Saturday and Sunday. Overseas markets and US equity futures continue to trade, which is why a stock can open at a different price on Monday morning than where it closed on Friday.

What is premarket trading?

Premarket trading is electronic trading that happens before the regular 9:30 AM ET open, typically starting at 4:00 AM ET. Volume is lighter, spreads are wider, and price moves on earnings releases or overnight news often happen here before regular trading begins.

What is after-hours trading?

After-hours trading is electronic trading that happens after the regular 4:00 PM ET close, typically running until 8:00 PM ET. Many companies release earnings into this window, which is why a stock can move sharply between the regular close and the next open.

When is the stock market closed for holidays?

The NYSE and NASDAQ close on a set list of US exchange holidays, including New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The exchanges also close early on the day after Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve. The official calendar is published by the NYSE and NASDAQ each year.

Why does my broker show a different price after the close?

Most brokerages keep streaming a price after 4:00 PM ET that reflects after-hours electronic trading on networks like NYSE Arca and the ECNs. After-hours volume is far lighter than the regular session, so a small order can move the displayed price more than it would during regular trading, and the after-hours print can drift back toward the 4:00 PM close once the session ends. The price the next regular session opens at is set by the official 9:30 AM ET opening auction, not by the last after-hours print.

Are the early-close days half-days?

On NYSE and NASDAQ early-close days, the regular trading session runs from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern Time instead of 4:00 PM. Premarket runs as usual from 4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET, and after-hours runs from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET on early-close days rather than the standard 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET. The two early-close days each year are the day after Thanksgiving and, when Christmas Eve falls on a weekday, December 24.

Are NYSE and NASDAQ open at the same time?

Yes. The NYSE and NASDAQ run the same regular session, 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, and observe the same exchange holidays and early-close days. Premarket and after-hours windows are also aligned. The two exchanges differ in what they list (NYSE leans toward older industrial and consumer names; NASDAQ leans toward technology and biotech), how they match orders (NYSE has designated market makers at each listed-stock post; NASDAQ runs as a fully electronic dealer market), and how their opening and closing auctions are run, but the clock the regular session opens and closes on is identical. The same is true of NYSE American (AMEX) and the other US listing venues.

What happens when a holiday falls on a weekend?

When a recognized US exchange holiday falls on a Saturday, the NYSE and NASDAQ are normally closed the Friday before. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the exchanges are normally closed the following Monday. The rule applies to New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Juneteenth, and Christmas Day, which are the holidays that can move based on the weekday they land on. Holidays that are always on a specific weekday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving) cannot fall on a weekend, so no observed-day adjustment is needed. The official calendar each year is published by the NYSE and NASDAQ.

What is the opening auction?

The opening auction is the matching event the NYSE and NASDAQ run at exactly 9:30 AM Eastern Time to set the official first trade of the day for each listed stock. Buy and sell orders that arrived during premarket are batched into a single price-discovery process; the exchange computes the price that maximizes traded shares while leaving the smallest order imbalance, then publishes that price as the opening print. The closing auction works the same way at 4:00 PM ET and sets the official closing price used in most data feeds. Both auctions exist because a single auction price gives a fair reference for the rest of the session and for benchmarks like index closing values, whereas a free-floating opening or closing tick on thin volume could be moved by a small order.

Are all stocks available to trade outside regular hours?

Most stocks listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ can be traded during premarket (4:00 AM to 9:30 AM ET) and after-hours (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM ET), but volume varies widely. A handful of mega-cap names trade in size during extended hours; many smaller-cap names see almost no extended-hours volume, which means a market order can move the displayed price meaningfully even on a small position. Some brokers limit extended-hours access to a shorter window or to a smaller list of names; check the broker’s rules before relying on extended hours for entry or exit. OTC and Pink Sheet securities typically do not trade during extended hours, and most ETFs follow their underlying exchange’s extended-hours schedule rather than running their own session.

Is it riskier to trade during premarket and after-hours?

Yes, in three concrete ways. First, volume is far lighter than the regular session, so the bid-ask spread is wider and a market order can fill at a noticeably worse price than the displayed quote. Second, news drops are concentrated in the extended-hours windows (earnings press releases, FDA announcements, M&A news) and the thin order book can move the price several percent on a single mid-size order before the regular session opens. Third, many brokers restrict order types in extended hours to limit orders only (no market orders, no stop-loss orders), which means a fast move can blow through your intended price before the order fills. If you trade extended hours, use limit orders, watch the spread, and remember that the official open and close prints come from the regular-session opening and closing auctions, not from the extended-hours tape.

What are limit-up / limit-down bands?

Limit-up / limit-down (LULD) is a per-stock price-band system run by the U.S. exchanges. If a stock’s price moves outside a band (typically 5%, 10%, or 20% from a five-minute rolling reference price, depending on the security tier and time of session) for more than 15 seconds, trading in that specific stock pauses for five minutes while the exchanges and the participants reassess. The bands are wider in the open and close brackets and tighter during the rest of the session, and lower-priced stocks have wider proportional bands than higher-priced ones. LULD is separate from the market-wide circuit breakers covered in the prior question: the market-wide breakers pause every stock on a deep S&P 500 drop; LULD pauses one stock at a time on its own price band. The system has been in continuous force since 2012 and replaced an older per-stock circuit-breaker pilot.

What are market-wide circuit breakers?

Market-wide circuit breakers are SEC-approved pauses that halt all U.S. equity trading when the S&P 500 falls a set percentage from the prior session close. Level 1 triggers at a 7% drop before 3:25 PM ET and pauses trading for 15 minutes; Level 2 triggers at a 13% drop before 3:25 PM ET and also pauses for 15 minutes; Level 3 triggers at a 20% drop at any time during the regular session and closes the market for the rest of the day. The system was reformed after the May 2010 Flash Crash and the rules currently in force trace to 2013. A trading pause is meant to give participants time to reassess prices and re-establish two-sided order books rather than forcing them to trade through a panic. Individual stocks have their own narrower limit-up / limit-down bands separate from these market-wide triggers.

When does a stock trade actually settle?

U.S. stock trades settle on a T+1 schedule — one business day after the trade date. A trade executed on Monday settles on Tuesday, a trade executed on Friday settles on the following Monday (weekends and exchange holidays do not count toward the settlement clock). The settlement date is when the shares actually move from the seller’s account to the buyer’s account and the cash moves the other way. The schedule moved from T+2 to T+1 on May 28, 2024, when the SEC shortened the standard cycle to reduce counterparty risk and align with parts of the cleared options and Treasury markets. The settlement date is most relevant to dividends (the record date follows it), to short-selling rules (locate and delivery requirements), and to wash-sale loss timing.

Why is the stock market closed on weekends?

The NYSE and NASDAQ operate as Monday-through-Friday markets, mirroring the underlying clearinghouse and bank settlement systems that move shares and cash after a trade. The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, Fedwire, and the major bank wire networks all run on weekday-only schedules, so a Saturday or Sunday trade could not actually clear until Monday. Proposals to add evening, weekend, or 24-hour sessions periodically surface in the industry, but no proposal has reached a finalized SEC rule at this point. Other asset classes operate on different schedules — bitcoin and Ethereum trade 24/7 on crypto exchanges, and US equity-index futures trade nearly around-the-clock from Sunday evening through Friday afternoon — but the regular US stock market itself is a five-weekday market.