U.S. markets will not operate on Thursday due to the observance of the Juneteenth holiday. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are among those that will remain closed. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) has advised that the U.S. Bond market should also be closed, a recommendation that will be followed.

Foreign exchange (FX) desks will shut down, although limited staffing may be present. For futures markets related to Equity Products at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), trading will proceed under regular hours on Wednesday, June 18th. On Thursday, June 19th, activities will halt at 12:00pm (US Central Time) and resume at 5:00pm.

Normal trading hours will return on Friday, June 20th. For other products at the CME, specific holiday trading hours are displayed on their trading page, indicated in yellow.

Schedule Adjustments Around Juneteenth

At its core, the original text outlines the schedule adjustments around Juneteenth in the United States, particularly how different financial markets—such as equities, bonds, futures, and foreign exchange—will handle closures and adjustments. For anyone managing risk or positioning in derivatives, these brief closures require watchful attention, not only due to interruptions in price action, but also due to the shifting of liquidity before and after the holiday.

Since exchanges across the country—including the NYSE and Nasdaq—will be shuttered for the day, we see that pricing signals from equities will effectively pause. This directly impacts equity-index futures and option hedging strategies, which feed off real-time market data. With equity products at CME closing early on Thursday and then reactivating in the evening, there’s a condensed window of activity with sparse participation. Anyone holding positions that are sensitive to market-moving information should note that there is inherently less volume and stability during those few hours of reopen.

Bond traders will also observe a full stop, as suggested by the SIFMA recommendation. Credit markets being offline means rate-sensitive instruments such as treasury futures may become momentarily less responsive. Yields won’t reprice, spreads won’t move on cash instruments, and anything relying on fixed-income directionality will simply freeze. Wednesday becomes the final session before dealers lose one full day of data input, and because of this, adjustments or rollovers may get squeezed into fewer trading hours than usual. We find it effective, in such instances, to scale down size and trim unnecessary delta before these holiday pauses.

Foreign exchange desks nominally shut, but with skeletal staffing in place, the potential for gapping moves during thin hours remains a concern. With FX being a 24-hour market, it never really closes—but the reality is that on days like this, it operates with far less participation from the US side. Traders who rely on US data or Fed-driven pricing mechanisms will be without cues. Cross-currency swaps, basis trades or synthetically constructed positions that use combinations of futures and FX also require an added layer of attention.

Futures Market Trading Times

In the futures markets, equity-linked products at CME trade as normal on Wednesday, with a midday closure the following day. At 12:00pm Central Time on Thursday, the halt effectively shortens the session considerably, leaving one to prepare for compressed liquidity and skewed bid-offer spreads. Some instruments resume just five hours later, but the thin volume of posts and the lack of settlement action often results in trade signals becoming noisy. Avoid initiating fresh directional trades around that window, unless backed by external flows that can be verified.

If one’s book includes commodities or interest rate futures, the trading page on CME, marked in yellow, gives exact operating times—staring at it daily is not a habit, but in this week it is necessary. Each product behaves independently there, and assuming shared calendars often leads to mistakes. Time-stamped awareness of when markets open and close—especially with non-standard hours—is the cleanest way to preserve capital.

Lastly, be aware that the return to full operating hours on Friday doesn’t mean the liquidity returns immediately. In past years, we’ve seen Friday trade more like a transition day, with participants filtering back gradually. That gap between structural re-opening and functional liquidity availability should be managed with reduction in risk, not addition.

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