US Stock Market Holidays, Early Closes and Settlement Dates

In 2026, NYSE and Nasdaq are fully closed on ten scheduled holidays and close at 1:00 p.m. ET on November 27 and December 24. Most U.S. stock trades settle T+1, but weekends and non-settlement days are skipped. Two dates require special care: October 12 and November 11 are regular stock-trading days, yet DTC provides no settlement services, so affected trades move to the next eligible day. Early-close days still count as trading and settlement days, although extended-hours access can end earlier than usual.

Key takeaway: Trading days and settlement days are not always the same. Check the exchange calendar, the settlement calendar, and the broker’s session rules separately before planning a trade, withdrawal, or overnight position around a holiday.

2026 US stock market holiday calendar

The calendar below applies to the regular equity sessions of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. All times are Eastern Time. For the ordinary premarket, regular, after-hours, and overnight schedule, use the guide to US stock market session hours.

The NYSE holiday calendar and Nasdaq’s 2026 schedule confirm the following full-day closures:

1. Thursday, January 1 — New Year’s Day. The next regular session opened Friday, January 2.
2. Monday, January 19 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The next regular session opened Tuesday, January 20.
3. Monday, February 16 — Washington’s Birthday/Presidents Day. The next regular session opened Tuesday, February 17.
4. Friday, April 3 — Good Friday. The next regular session opened Monday, April 6.
5. Monday, May 25 — Memorial Day. The next regular session opened Tuesday, May 26.
6. Friday, June 19 — Juneteenth National Independence Day. The next regular session opened Monday, June 22.
7. Friday, July 3 — Independence Day observed. July 4 falls on Saturday in 2026, so the equity-market closure was observed on Friday. The next regular session opened Monday, July 6.
8. Monday, September 7 — Labor Day. The next regular session opens Tuesday, September 8.
9. Thursday, November 26 — Thanksgiving Day. The next equity session opens Friday, November 27, but closes early.
10. Friday, December 25 — Christmas Day. The next regular session opens Monday, December 28.

Two scheduled early closes remain:

1. Friday, November 27 — the day after Thanksgiving. The core stock session closes at 1:00 p.m. ET. The next full-length regular session begins Monday, November 30 at 9:30 a.m.
2. Thursday, December 24 — Christmas Eve. The core stock session closes at 1:00 p.m. ET. The next regular session begins Monday, December 28 at 9:30 a.m.

These are stock-market dates, not a universal schedule for every U.S. financial product. Eligible options close at 1:15 p.m. on the scheduled early-close days, while bonds, futures, mutual funds, and foreign markets follow different calendars.

Trading holidays, early closes, and settlement holidays are different

A useful holiday check has three separate layers.

A full market holiday

NYSE and Nasdaq do not conduct their regular stock sessions. Ordinary regular-hours Day orders cannot execute, and no standard NSCC Continuous Net Settlement processing occurs.

Good Friday illustrates why a market holiday is not necessarily a federal holiday. Federal banks remain open on April 3, 2026, but the stock exchanges and NSCC are closed. DTC provides limited processing, yet DTCC’s Good Friday notice states that no CNS activity settles that day.

An early-close day

The market opens normally at 9:30 a.m. ET but the core stock session ends at 1:00 p.m. An early close is still a trading day and normally remains a settlement day.

A trade executed on November 27 can therefore carry November 27 as its trade date and settle on Monday, November 30 under T+1. The shorter session does not convert the day into a holiday.

A trading day that is not a settlement day

This is the easily missed category. In 2026, NYSE and Nasdaq remain open on:

1. Monday, October 12 — Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day;
2. Wednesday, November 11 — Veterans Day.

Stocks trade during their ordinary sessions, but federal banks are closed. DTCC’s anticipated 2026 DTC settlement schedule states that DTC is open on both dates but does not provide settlement services.

This produces two trades with different trade dates but the same settlement date:

1. a trade executed Friday, October 9 settles Tuesday, October 13;
2. a trade executed Monday, October 12 also settles Tuesday, October 13.

The same pattern applies in November:

1. a trade executed Tuesday, November 10 settles Thursday, November 12;
2. a trade executed Wednesday, November 11 also settles Thursday, November 12.

A federal holiday is therefore not proof that the stock market is closed, and an open stock market is not proof that settlement is available.

How to calculate a T+1 settlement date around a holiday

The SEC’s T+1 investor bulletin explains that most applicable U.S. stock and ETF transactions settle one business day after the trade date.

For a standard U.S. stock trade:

1. Start with the trade date shown on the broker’s confirmation.
2. Move forward one calendar day.
3. Skip Saturday and Sunday.
4. Skip a date on which normal equity settlement does not occur.
5. The first remaining eligible date is the expected settlement date.

The 2026 holiday calculations work as follows:

1. Thursday, April 2 trade → Monday, April 6 settlement. Good Friday and the weekend are skipped.
2. Thursday, July 2 trade → Monday, July 6 settlement. The observed Independence Day closure and weekend are skipped.
3. Friday, October 9 trade → Tuesday, October 13 settlement. The weekend and the October 12 non-settlement day are skipped.
4. Monday, October 12 trade → Tuesday, October 13 settlement. The market is open on the trade date, but settlement is unavailable that day.
5. Tuesday, November 10 trade → Thursday, November 12 settlement. Veterans Day is skipped.
6. Wednesday, November 11 trade → Thursday, November 12 settlement. Trading remains open on Veterans Day.
7. Wednesday, November 25 trade → Friday, November 27 settlement. Thanksgiving is skipped, but the early-close Friday remains a settlement day.
8. Friday, November 27 trade → Monday, November 30 settlement. The weekend is skipped.
9. Thursday, December 24 trade → Monday, December 28 settlement. Christmas Day and the weekend are skipped.
10. Thursday, December 31 trade → Monday, January 4, 2027 settlement. New Year’s Day and the weekend are skipped.

[ORIGINAL ASSET REQUIRED: Add a dynamic 2026 holiday and settlement calendar here. The user must be able to select a trade date and receive the expected T+1 settlement date, market status, regular close time, next market open, and a warning when the market is open but settlement is unavailable. The calculation must treat October 12 and November 11 as trading days but not settlement days.]

Settlement is not automatically the same as withdrawability. A broker can apply separate cash-transfer cutoffs, deposited-funds holds, currency-conversion timing, compliance reviews, or account restrictions. The underlying rules for using sale proceeds are covered in the guide to T+1 settlement in a cash account.

What happens to after-hours trading on an early-close day

A 1:00 p.m. close changes more than the time of the closing auction.

For NYSE-listed and Nasdaq-listed stocks, the core session ends at 1:00 p.m. ET. Orders marked for the regular session can expire at that point rather than at the usual 4:00 p.m.

Extended trading does not necessarily continue until the ordinary 8:00 p.m. boundary. NYSE currently states that the late sessions of NYSE American Equities, NYSE Arca Equities, NYSE National, and NYSE Texas close at 5:00 p.m. ET on the November 27 and December 24 early-close dates. Nasdaq publishes separate operational alerts for modified system hours.

A broker can provide a narrower window or impose its own restrictions. Before relying on an order after 1:00 p.m., verify:

1. whether the broker offers extended trading on that early-close date;
2. the exact opening and closing time of the broker’s session;
3. whether the stock is eligible;
4. whether the order requires an Extended, EXT, Outside RTH, or similar instruction;
5. whether the order expires at 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., or another broker-defined boundary;
6. whether attached stops or conditional orders remain eligible;
7. which trade date the broker assigns to an overnight execution.

A chart showing transactions after 1:00 p.m. does not prove that a particular account or order can access those prices.

Practical scenario: the market is open but the cash does not settle

The following example is hypothetical.

A trader holds 400 shares of XYZ. On Friday, October 9, 2026, the trader sells all 400 shares at $25.10, producing $10,040 in gross proceeds:

400 × $25.10 = $10,040

The broker shows the sale as executed and immediately displays $10,040 as available buying power. The trader expects the transaction to settle on Monday because the account uses T+1.

That expectation is incorrect:

1. Saturday and Sunday are not settlement days.
2. Monday, October 12 is a regular NYSE and Nasdaq trading day.
3. However, DTC does not provide settlement services on October 12.
4. The sale therefore settles on Tuesday, October 13.

Suppose the trader uses the proceeds to buy 200 shares of ABC at $49.50 on Monday:

200 × $49.50 = $9,900

The purchase also has an expected settlement date of Tuesday, October 13. Both the Friday sale and Monday purchase reach settlement on the same date.

What the trader saw: executed sale proceeds and available buying power.

What the trader expected: settlement on the next Monday.

What happened: Monday was a trading day but not a settlement day.

Why it happened: the trader checked only whether the exchange was open and did not check the DTC settlement schedule.

How to prevent it: separate the broker’s displayed buying power from settled cash and calculate T+1 using settlement-eligible days, not trading days alone.

A withdrawal request introduces another layer. Even after Tuesday’s settlement, the broker may apply a transfer cutoff or account-specific hold. The settlement calculator should therefore report the expected securities-settlement date without promising that cash will be withdrawable at the same moment.

Exceptions that can change the standard answer

The execution occurred in an overnight session

Use the trade date on the broker’s confirmation. An execution that occurs during the local calendar evening can be assigned to the next U.S. trade date under a venue or broker’s overnight rules. Calculating from the trader’s local date can produce the wrong settlement date.

The transaction is not a regular-way US stock trade

Options, mutual funds, bonds, futures, foreign-listed securities, and certain primary-market or corporate-action transactions can use different settlement rules. Identify the product before applying the stock-calendar calculator.

The exchange announced an unscheduled closure

The annual calendar covers scheduled holidays and early closes. Severe weather, national events, technical failures, or regulatory action can produce an unscheduled closure or altered processing. Current exchange, FINRA, DTCC, and broker notices take priority over a static annual page.

The security is halted

A market can be open while one stock is halted. A symbol-specific halt does not change the general settlement calendar, but it can prevent execution and make the intended trade date irrelevant.

The order remains visible during a closure

A GTC order can remain open in the account while the market is closed. Visibility does not mean the order is currently executable. Its session eligibility and status must be checked separately.

The broker uses different cash labels

“Available to trade,” “settled cash,” and “available to withdraw” can show different amounts. Settlement completes the securities transaction; it does not override broker-specific funding, transfer, or compliance controls.

A corporate action changes the operational date

Splits, tender offers, mergers, dividends, and reorganizations can use record, payable, expiration, or election dates that interact with holidays differently. Do not use a simple T+1 calculator for a corporate-action deadline.

Holiday trading and settlement checklist

Before planning a trade, withdrawal, or overnight position around a holiday:

1. Confirm the date in Eastern Time rather than relying only on the trader’s local calendar date.
2. Check whether NYSE and Nasdaq are open, closed, or scheduled to close at 1:00 p.m.
3. Identify the broker’s actual premarket, regular, after-hours, or overnight window.
4. Confirm the stock, order type, session flag, and time-in-force are eligible.
5. Record the trade date shown on the execution confirmation.
6. Calculate T+1 while excluding weekends and non-settlement dates.
7. Remember that October 12 and November 11 are trading days but not settlement days in 2026.
8. Treat November 27 and December 24 as settlement days despite the 1:00 p.m. market close.
9. Check remaining orders before the shortened session ends.
10. Verify the final settlement date and cash status in the account before reusing or withdrawing proceeds.
11. Recheck official notices if the date is close to an exchange, banking, or settlement holiday.
12. Do not apply the equity calendar automatically to options, bonds, futures, or foreign securities.

Hi2morrow methodology: We classify every relevant date across three independent fields: trading status, session close, and settlement eligibility. “Open” is not a complete status. A date can be open for trading but closed for settlement, or open for both while operating with a shortened trading session.

Professional analysis — Khasan Kadyrov: Most holiday errors do not come from forgetting that Christmas or Thanksgiving exists. They come from assuming that one calendar controls every process. The operationally important dates are the exceptions: an open market without settlement, an early close with normal settlement, or an overnight execution whose trade date differs from the trader’s local date. Those are the dates that should generate a warning before an order or withdrawal is planned.

In 2026, NYSE and Nasdaq have ten scheduled full-day closures and two 1:00 p.m. early closes. Most stock transactions settle T+1, but the calculation must exclude weekends and non-settlement days. October 12 and November 11 require special attention because stocks trade normally while settlement is unavailable. Use the official exchange calendar to determine whether trading is open, the DTCC calendar to determine whether settlement can occur, and the broker’s confirmation to identify the actual trade and settlement dates.

Khasan Kadyrov is a hi2morrow analyst and an economist with five years of experience in the US stock market.

Editorial note: Substantively updated on August 5, 2026. The article was checked against the current NYSE and Nasdaq 2026 holiday schedules, official DTCC and NSCC holiday-processing notices, and SEC and FINRA guidance on T+1 settlement. Exchange, clearing, settlement, and broker schedules remain subject to operational updates.

Educational material only. Not investment advice.

Sources

1. NYSE: Holidays and Trading Hours
2. Nasdaq Trader: US Equity and Options Markets Holiday Schedule 2026
3. Nasdaq: US Stock Market Holiday Schedule
4. SEC: New T+1 Settlement Cycle—What Investors Need to Know
5. FINRA: Understanding Settlement Cycles
6. DTCC: DTC Settlement—Anticipated Holiday Schedule 2026
7. DTCC: NSCC Good Friday 2026 Holiday Schedule
8. DTCC: DTC Good Friday 2026 Processing Schedule

Author: Alexander Styopin trader with 24 years of trading experience and an economic analyst at hi2morrow

Originally published: January 29, 2026

Substantively updated: August 5, 2026