The bell didn't ring: the day the Twin Towers disaster shut down Wall Street

25 years after the 9/11 attacks: for the first time since the Great Depression, the New York Stock Exchange was closed for four trading days. Indices plummeted upon reopening but recovered within weeks. The article reviews the dramatic decision not to open trading, the physical and technological damage to Wall Street, and the broader context of the dot-com bubble that burst at the time.

25 years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the article focuses on the parallel drama that unfolded on Wall Street. At the New York Stock Exchange, located just blocks from the World Trade Center, a dramatic decision was made upon learning of the attacks: not to open the trading day. The decision proved particularly successful, as an hour later the South Tower collapsed, and about half an hour later the North Tower also fell. The collapse of the towers destroyed the communication hubs and telephone lines of Verizon that served the area, and as a result, the trading shutdown continued in the days following the attack. For the first time since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the exchange was closed for four consecutive trading days. When trading opened on Monday, September 17, markets reacted with sharp declines: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 7.13% on the first trading day and about 14% for the week; the S&P 500 fell about 4.9% on the first day and about 11.6% during the week; the Nasdaq fell about 6.8% on the first day and about 16% during the week. However, the recovery was rapid: the S&P 500 and Nasdaq returned to pre-attack levels by mid-October, and the Dow Jones recovered towards the end of the month. The article notes that the attacks occurred during an already difficult period, with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and after the initial recovery from the shock, the indices returned to a downward trend until October 2002.