What Time Does the Stock Market Close Today: Answers to the Most Common Questions
What time does the stock market close today? On a standard trading day, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq both close at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. That answer covers approximately 245 of the roughly 252 trading days in a calendar year. The exceptions matter if you are placing a trade or managing an open position: early closes at 1:00 p.m. Eastern apply on the day before Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday. On 10 federal and market holidays, the exchanges do not open at all.
This post gives you the full answer: today's closing time, how to check for exceptions, what happens in after-hours, and how closing times across global exchanges affect international stock trading.
Key Takeaways
- The NYSE and Nasdaq close at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on regular trading days, every weekday that is not a holiday.
- Early closes at 1:00 p.m. Eastern occur on two specific days each year: the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday.
- The official "today" closing price, set at 4:00 p.m., is the price used for index calculations, mutual fund NAVs, and options expirations.
- After-hours trading runs from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern with significantly lower volume and wider bid-ask spreads.
- International exchanges close at different local times; major European markets close around 10:30-11:30 a.m. Eastern, well before U.S. markets close.
- For value investors, the most useful data comes from the 4:00 p.m. close price, not the after-hours print, because that is what earnings yield, P/E, and forward P/E calculations in your screener will reflect.
What Time Does the Stock Market Close Today: The Quick Answer
The answer depends on one question: is today a regular trading day, an early-close day, or a holiday?
| Day Type | Closing Time (Eastern) |
|---|---|
| Regular trading day | 4:00 p.m. |
| Early-close day (day before Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve on a weekday) | 1:00 p.m. |
| Holiday (10 per year) | Closed all day |
| Weekend | Closed all day |
The 2026 market holidays are: New Year's Day (January 1), Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 19), Presidents' Day (February 16), Good Friday (April 3), Memorial Day (May 25), Juneteenth (June 19), Independence Day observed (July 3), Labor Day (September 7), Thanksgiving (November 26), and Christmas (December 25).
If today is none of those dates and not a weekend, the stock market closes at 4:00 p.m. Eastern today.
How the 4:00 p.m. Closing Price Is Set
The NYSE uses a closing auction process that begins at 3:50 p.m. Eastern and culminates with the closing bell at 4:00 p.m. During the auction window, market-on-close (MOC) and limit-on-close (LOC) orders are collected and matched to set the official closing price. This mechanism is designed to minimize price manipulation in the final seconds and ensure the closing price represents genuine supply and demand.
The Nasdaq uses a similar closing cross process, also culminating at 4:00 p.m. For highly liquid names like Apple (AAPL, P/E 28.3, ROIC 45.1%) and Microsoft (MSFT, P/E 32.1, ROIC 35.2%), the closing auction can trade tens of millions of shares in the final minutes. For smaller-cap names, the closing auction may have limited participation, making the closing price more susceptible to a single large order.
The closing price at 4:00 p.m. is the number that flows into every fundamental metric you use. The earnings yield, P/E ratio, and forward P/E that the ValueMarkers screener displays are all calculated from the most recent 4:00 p.m. close.
After-Hours Trading: What Happens After 4:00 p.m. Today
After the 4:00 p.m. close, electronic trading continues through electronic communication networks (ECNs) until 8:00 p.m. Eastern. This after-hours session is available through most major retail brokerages including Fidelity, Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and Robinhood.
The practical differences from the regular session:
Volume is a fraction of the regular session. Most stocks see 2-5% of their normal daily volume after hours. This means a single institutional order can move a stock 2-3% in after-hours even if it would barely move the same stock during regular trading.
Spreads are wider. A stock with a $0.01 bid-ask spread during the day may have a $0.20 or wider spread at 5:00 p.m. You pay that spread every time you trade, so frequent after-hours trading erodes returns quickly.
Earnings reactions happen here. Most companies report quarterly earnings after 4:00 p.m. to avoid disrupting regular trading. The initial reaction, which can be 10-20% in either direction for a meaningful earnings surprise, happens in this thin-liquidity session. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, dividend yield 3.1%) and Coca-Cola (KO, yield 3.0%) both report outside regular hours.
| Time Window | Typical Volume (% of Regular Session) | Typical Spread Multiple |
|---|---|---|
| 4:00-5:00 p.m. | 3-5% | 3-5x wider |
| 5:00-6:00 p.m. | 1-2% | 5-10x wider |
| 6:00-8:00 p.m. | Under 1% | 10x+ wider |
What Time Do International Markets Close Today
If your portfolio includes international stocks, the closing time question becomes more complex. Each exchange operates on local time, and most major international exchanges close well before the U.S. 4:00 p.m. Eastern close.
| Exchange | Local Closing Time | Today's Eastern Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| London Stock Exchange | 4:30 p.m. GMT | 11:30 a.m. ET (winter), 10:30 a.m. ET (summer) |
| Frankfurt (Xetra) | 5:30 p.m. CET | 11:30 a.m. ET (winter), 10:30 a.m. ET (summer) |
| Euronext Paris | 5:30 p.m. CET | 11:30 a.m. ET (winter), 10:30 a.m. ET (summer) |
| Toronto Stock Exchange | 4:00 p.m. ET | 4:00 p.m. ET |
| Tokyo Stock Exchange | 3:00 p.m. JST | 2:00 a.m. ET |
| Hong Kong Stock Exchange | 4:00 p.m. HKT | 4:00 a.m. ET |
| ASX (Australia) | 4:00 p.m. AEST | 2:00 a.m. ET |
A practical implication: if you are analyzing a European stock on a U.S. afternoon, you are looking at a closing price that is already several hours old. News that breaks in the U.S. afternoon will be priced in only when the European market opens the following morning.
Why the Last 30 Minutes Before Close Matters Most
Volume concentrates at the start and end of the trading day, but the end-of-day concentration is more pronounced. The 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. window (the final 30 minutes before the stock market closes today) accounts for roughly 20-25% of total daily volume on a typical session.
This concentration happens because institutional portfolio managers rebalance at end of day, index funds execute their tracking orders at the close, and options traders manage delta exposure heading into the close. For retail investors, this creates a meaningful price discovery effect: the closing price reflects more true price consensus than any 30-minute window during the middle of the day.
If you are placing a market order to buy or sell a position, doing so in the final 30 minutes means you are trading against significantly more volume, which can be beneficial (better price discovery, tighter spreads) or harmful (more price impact from your own order if you are trading a less-liquid name).
How to Check If the Market Is Open Right Now
The most reliable sources to confirm whether U.S. markets are open and what time they close today:
- The NYSE website (nyse.com) publishes the official holiday calendar and flags early-close days.
- Google's finance search will show a banner indicating whether markets are open or closed when you search for a ticker symbol.
- The ValueMarkers screener displays real-time prices during market hours and last-close prices after 4:00 p.m., giving you an indirect signal of market status.
Further reading: SEC EDGAR · Investopedia
Why stock market close time today Matters
This section anchors the discussion on stock market close time today. The detailed treatment, formula, and worked examples appear in the body of this article above. The points below summarize the most important takeaways for value investors who want to apply stock market close time today in real portfolio decisions. ValueMarkers exposes the underlying data on every covered ticker via the screener and stock profile pages, so the concepts in this article translate directly into actionable filters.
Key inputs for stock market close time today
See the main discussion of stock market close time today in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using stock market close time today alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Sector benchmarks for stock market close time today
See the main discussion of stock market close time today in the sections above for the full treatment, including the inputs, the calculation methodology, the typical sector benchmarks, and the most common pitfalls to avoid. The ValueMarkers screener lets value investors filter the full universe of 100,000+ stocks across 73 exchanges using stock market close time today alongside the rest of the 120-indicator composite, with sector percentiles and historical trends shown on every stock profile.
Related ValueMarkers Resources
- Pe Ratio — Glossary entry for Pe Ratio
- Forward Pe — Glossary entry for Forward Pe
- Earnings Yield — Earnings Yield is the metric used to how cheaply a stock trades relative to its fundamentals
- What Time Does Stock Market Close — related ValueMarkers analysis
- When Does The Stock Market Open — related ValueMarkers analysis
- Undervalued Stocks Right Now — related ValueMarkers analysis
Frequently Asked Questions
what happens if the stock market crashes
A crash is typically defined as a rapid 20%+ decline from a recent peak over days or weeks rather than months. Every crash since 1929 has been followed by a full recovery, though recovery timelines range from 18 months (2020 COVID crash) to over a decade (1929). The practical response for long-term investors is to avoid selling high-quality positions at panic lows, review portfolio valuations against fundamentals, and consider whether the price decline has created an attractive entry point in names that were previously too expensive.
what time does the stock market open
The NYSE and Nasdaq open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time on regular trading days. Pre-market trading is available from 4:00 a.m. Eastern through most retail brokerages, with meaningful liquidity beginning around 8:00 a.m. Eastern ahead of the 8:30 a.m. economic data window. The 9:30 a.m. open is typically the second most volatile 30-minute window of the day after the 3:30-4:00 p.m. close.
are stock markets closed today
To confirm whether markets are open today, check the NYSE holiday calendar or search a ticker on Google Finance, which shows a real-time market status indicator. U.S. markets are closed on 10 dates in 2026: January 1, January 19, February 16, April 3, May 25, June 19, July 3, September 7, November 26, and December 25.
what time does the stock market close
The NYSE and Nasdaq close at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on standard trading days. The two exceptions per year are the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday, when markets close early at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. After-hours trading runs until 8:00 p.m. Eastern with reduced liquidity and wider spreads.
when does the stock market open
U.S. markets open at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Pre-market activity begins at 4:00 a.m. Eastern but carries thin liquidity before 8:00 a.m. For European investors, the 9:30 a.m. Eastern open corresponds to 2:30 p.m. London and 3:30 p.m. Frankfurt, meaning U.S. and European sessions overlap for roughly two hours before European exchanges close.
why is the stock market down today
Markets fall on any given day due to a combination of factors: disappointing economic data (jobs reports, inflation readings), central bank signals about interest rates, earnings misses from large-cap names, geopolitical events, or technical selling after an extended rally. The most useful diagnostic is to check breadth: if most sectors and most stocks are declining simultaneously, the cause is typically macro. If the decline is confined to one sector, the cause is more likely sector-specific news or sentiment.
Use the ValueMarkers screener to filter your watchlist by forward P/E, earnings yield, and total return after the 4:00 p.m. close. The close price is when real fundamental data becomes available, making it the right time to run your daily screening pass.
Written by Javier Sanz, Founder of ValueMarkers. Last updated April 2026.
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Disclaimer: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an offer to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions.