Chaos after attack keeps U.S. markets closed today

Associated Press

NEW YORK — U.S. securities markets remained closed todayafter a terrorist attack leveled the World Trade Center and left the nation’s financial center in chaos.

All U.S. exchanges and markets decided to close for the day Tuesday, and officials of the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stock Market and American Stock Exchange said they would remain shut today.

"As a safety precaution while the tragic events of today are sorted out, the securities markets have decided not to open for trading today," SEC chairman Harvey Pitt said Tuesday in a statement. "We strongly support that decision."

It was likely that it would take at least a few days before activity could fully resume because of the devastation of the World Trade Center and the damage caused to surrounding businesses by two planes that crashed into the center’s twin towers.

The trade center is a few blocks from the New York Stock Exchange in the area known as the Financial District. Its towers were among the tallest skyscrapers in the world and a distinctive part of the city’s skyline prior to their collapse Tuesday morning.

The New York Mercantile Exchange, where energy futures are traded, is in the nearby World Financial Center, which was not directly hit in the plane assault. Additionally, many of the nation’s investment firms have at least some of their operations in the area, and the extent of the physical — and emotional — wreckage could limit their ability to restart quickly.

The World Trade Center attack and other assaults at the State Department and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., added to the paralysis and terror already engulfing the area.

"The two explosions were incredible, and at the point of explosions all you could see outside were personal belongings and office supplies raining outside," said Bob Rendine, an American Stock Exchange spokesman whose office is down the block from the NYSE. "We’re staying here. We think it’s safer to stay inside then go outside at this point."

Around the country and world, the investment community was focused on the fate of people working in the World Trade Center affected by the apparent terrorist attacks.

"I’m just worried about people who are there," said Robert Harrington, head of listed block trading at UBS Warburg’s office in Connecticut.