NYSE: Markets to stay closed Thursday

The earliest date for a full repoening of the U.S. stock markets is Friday, with some securities trading as early as tomorrow. Federal regulators and exchange leaders say that U.S. government securities trading will resume at 8:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, with full or partial equities trading expected to resume “as early as Friday and no later than Monday.” Restarting the markets, the value of the dollar is expected to plunge sharply, and the Federal Reserve Bank has dropped $38 billion in cash reserves into the U.S. banking system to ward off the effects of a possible bank run should that prediction come true. While the European markets staged a modest rally today, most analysts predict that sharp declines are ahead for the U.S. markets. Reuters has the complete story.