Nasdaq Stock Exchange Approves 23-Hour Daily Trading

Nasdaq has filed a request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow daily trading sessions to extend to 23 hours, five days a week. According to the proposal, expected to take effect on December 6, an additional trading session will be added from 9 p.m. Eastern Time to 4 a.m. Nasdaq stated that strong demand from global investors for the market supports this proposal, pending official approvals. This issue has become a prominent topic in recent years, partly due to the 24-hour trading of cryptocurrencies and the rise in retail investor activity initially spurred by lockdowns resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. In a separate development, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has begun studying the possibility of blocking the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group’s (CME) proposal to launch a 24-hour crude oil futures contract, according to a Bloomberg report citing a senior CFTC official familiar with the matter. On Thursday, the CME Group announced its intention to offer 24-hour, seven-day-a-week trading for certain crude oil and gold futures contracts. According to the report, regulators are concerned that continuous trading in crude oil futures contracts could exacerbate volatility during periods of geopolitical uncertainty and market stress.