Is the Stock Market Open on Christmas Eve 2026? Hours and History
Yes, the US stock market is open on Christmas Eve 2026, but only until 1:00 PM Eastern. Thursday, December 24, 2026 is an early-close day on the NYSE and Nasdaq, Friday, December 25 is a full market holiday, and trading resumes at the normal 9:30 AM on Monday, December 28. New Year's Eve, Thursday December 31, is a full session, and Friday, January 1, 2027 is closed. The bond market closes early too, at 2:00 PM on December 24 under SIFMA's recommended schedule.
That answers the question in the search box. The rest of this page is for anyone who holds positions or runs automated orders through that week: exactly what a 1:00 PM close does to day orders and after-hours sessions, what the S&P 500 has done on every Christmas Eve session since 1950, how thin the trading really is, and what the 2027 calendar looks like, when Christmas falls on a Saturday.
Christmas and New Year market hours, 2026 to 2027
| Date | Stocks (NYSE and Nasdaq) | Bonds (SIFMA recommendation) |
|---|---|---|
| Thu Dec 24, 2026, Christmas Eve | Open 9:30 AM, early close 1:00 PM ET (options 1:15 PM) | Early close 2:00 PM ET |
| Fri Dec 25, 2026, Christmas Day | Closed | Closed |
| Mon Dec 28, 2026 | Normal hours | Normal hours |
| Thu Dec 31, 2026, New Year's Eve | Normal hours, full 4:00 PM close | Early close 2:00 PM ET (recommended) |
| Fri Jan 1, 2027, New Year's Day | Closed | Closed |
| Fri Dec 24, 2027 | Closed (Christmas observed, since Dec 25, 2027 is a Saturday) | Closed |
Two details from the NYSE calendar that trip people up. First, the 1:00 PM close applies to the main sessions; the NYSE's late trading sessions on NYSE Arca, NYSE American, NYSE National and NYSE Texas still run to 5:00 PM ET, which is why some brokers show after-hours quotes moving on a half day. Second, when Christmas falls on a Saturday, as it does in 2027, the holiday is observed on Friday and there is no early-close Christmas Eve at all; the same page already lists Friday, December 24, 2027 as a full closure.
What a 1:00 PM close does to your orders
An early close is a normal session compressed into three and a half hours, and every rule that keys off the close moves up with it.
- Day orders expire at 1:00 PM. A limit order that has not filled by then is cancelled, exactly as it would be at 4:00 PM on a normal day.
- Market-on-close and limit-on-close orders execute in the 1:00 PM closing auction. Imbalance publication and cutoff times move up with it; check your broker's notice for the exact minutes.
- Settlement does not change. A trade on December 24 settles on the next business day, December 28, because December 25 is a holiday.
- Options on many equities stop at 1:15 PM, fifteen minutes after stocks, which matters for anyone adjusting a hedge in the last minutes.
- Extended-hours sessions still exist. Pre-market runs as usual, and the after-hours session on a half day typically runs from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET at brokers that offer it. Orders there must be limit orders, as on any extended session.
Software that places orders has one extra obligation: it has to know the day is short. A scanner that assumes a 4:00 PM close will keep generating buy signals through the afternoon of December 24 on a market that stopped trading at 1:00 PM, and the broker will either reject those orders or, for day orders at some brokers, hold them for the next session, which means a signal from a thin half day could fill at Monday's open four days later. That is the reason JorgAI's scanner stops fifteen minutes before whichever close applies: 3:45 PM on a normal day, 12:45 PM on Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving and other early-close days, with the holiday calendar maintained in the software rather than inferred from quotes. The exit monitors, which protect open positions, keep running while the market is open and never place a new entry. How each connected broker treats orders after the close is in the broker order-types comparison.
Every Christmas Eve session since 1950: what the S&P 500 did
Christmas Eve has fallen on a trading day 43 times since 1950. The other years it was a weekend or, when Christmas Day landed on a Saturday, the observed holiday. Using daily closes of the S&P 500 index from Yahoo Finance, pulled November 9, 2026:
| Measure | Christmas Eve sessions, 1950 to 2025 |
|---|---|
| Sessions | 43 |
| Closed higher | 26 of 43 (60%) |
| Median move | +0.13% |
| Mean move | +0.13% |
| Best | +1.39% |
| Worst | -2.71% (Monday, December 24, 2018) |
| Volume vs the prior 20 sessions (since 1993) | About 36% of a normal day, median |
| First session after Christmas | Closed higher 29 of 43 (67%), mean +0.39% |
The pattern is a quiet, slightly positive day on a fraction of normal volume, followed by a day after Christmas that has leaned higher more often than the eve itself. The quiet is the point for anyone trading it: at a third of normal volume, spreads widen, a market order moves the price more than it would on a normal Tuesday, and a single large order can push a stock around for minutes. The exception that proves it is 2018. On Monday, December 24, 2018 the index fell 2.71% in a half session, its worst Christmas Eve on record, amid a Treasury Secretary's weekend calls to bank chiefs and a Federal Reserve meeting the week before; on Wednesday, December 26 it rose 4.96%, at the time the largest one-day point gain in its history. Thin days do not only drift; when they move, they move a lot.
The last twelve Christmas Eve sessions
| Year | Day | Christmas Eve | First session after Christmas |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Wed | +0.32% | -0.03% (Dec 26) |
| 2024 | Tue | +1.10% | -0.04% (Dec 26) |
| 2020 | Thu | +0.35% | +0.87% (Dec 28) |
| 2019 | Tue | -0.02% | +0.51% (Dec 26) |
| 2018 | Mon | -2.71% | +4.96% (Dec 26) |
| 2015 | Thu | -0.16% | -0.22% (Dec 28) |
| 2014 | Wed | -0.01% | +0.33% (Dec 26) |
| 2013 | Tue | +0.29% | +0.47% (Dec 26) |
| 2012 | Mon | -0.24% | -0.48% (Dec 26) |
| 2009 | Thu | +0.53% | +0.12% (Dec 28) |
| 2008 | Wed | +0.58% | +0.54% (Dec 26) |
| 2007 | Mon | +0.81% | +0.08% (Dec 26) |
Christmas Eve is also the first day of the window people call the Santa Claus rally, the last five sessions of the year and the first two of the next. That window has its own page with all 76 years of data: the Santa Claus rally in 2026. The broader question of what stocks do the day before any market holiday is in the pre-holiday effect, and the other early-close day of the season, Black Friday, is covered in the Thanksgiving week guide.
A short checklist for the week
- Decide before December 24 whether any day order should still be working at 1:00 PM; cancel or convert to good-till-cancelled the night before.
- Expect wider spreads and thinner books; limit orders instead of market orders on anything that is not a large-cap.
- If software trades for you, confirm it knows the early close. Ask the vendor the exact question: what is your last entry time on December 24?
- Remember settlement slides to December 28, which matters for cash accounts that wait for settled funds.
- New Year's Eve is a full stock session this year; the early close that day is only the bond market's.
Quick answers
Is the stock market open on Christmas Eve 2026?
Yes. The NYSE and Nasdaq are open Thursday, December 24, 2026 from 9:30 AM until an early close at 1:00 PM ET; eligible options trade until 1:15 PM.
Is the stock market open on Christmas Day 2026?
No. Friday, December 25, 2026 is a full market holiday for stocks and bonds. Trading resumes Monday, December 28.
What time does the stock market close on Christmas Eve?
1:00 PM Eastern for stocks, 1:15 PM for many options, and 2:00 PM for the bond market under SIFMA's recommended schedule.
Is the stock market open the day after Christmas 2026?
December 26, 2026 is a Saturday, so no. The first session after Christmas is Monday, December 28, with normal hours.
Is the bond market open on Christmas Eve?
Yes, with a recommended 2:00 PM ET early close on December 24, 2026, and closed on December 25.
Is the stock market open on New Year's Eve 2026?
Yes, Thursday December 31, 2026 is a normal full session for stocks. The bond market has a recommended 2:00 PM early close. Friday, January 1, 2027 is closed.
Does the stock market close early on Christmas Eve 2027?
No. Christmas 2027 falls on a Saturday, so the holiday is observed on Friday, December 24, 2027 and the market is closed that day; there is no half-day Christmas Eve in 2027.
What has the S&P 500 done on Christmas Eve?
Across the 43 Christmas Eve sessions since 1950 the index closed higher 60% of the time with a median move of +0.13%, on roughly a third of normal volume. The worst was -2.71% in 2018; the day after Christmas has closed higher 67% of the time. Past behavior describes those days only.
How we put this together. Stock market hours are from the NYSE hours and calendars page and bond market hours from SIFMA's holiday schedule, both read on November 9, 2026. The Christmas Eve statistics are computed from Yahoo Finance daily closes of the S&P 500 index from January 1950 to November 2026; volume ratios use the 20 sessions before each Christmas Eve, available from 1993 onward. Order-handling notes come from the broker documentation summarized on our order-types page and from operating JorgAI's own scanner. Check your broker's holiday notice for the exact closing-auction cutoffs.
To see how rules-based exits behave on a quiet half day without connecting a broker, start on the free plan and run the simulator.
For the other end of the holiday week, New Year's Eve is a full session and January 1 is closed; the hours, the 2027 NYSE calendar and the S&P 500 on every year-end since 1950 are in the New Year's Eve market hours guide.
JorgAI is software that carries out the rules you set in your own brokerage account. It is not investment advice and does not predict or promise results. Index history is descriptive only. Trading involves risk of loss.
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