NEW YORK, April 2, 2026, 09:20 EDT
U.S. equities will go dark Friday, April 3, for Good Friday. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are both scheduled to halt trading after Thursday’s normal close, according to their published 2026 calendars. Markets are slated to resume regular hours on Monday, April 6.
Timing is key here. The Labor Department’s March jobs report lands Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, but equity traders are left without a normal session to respond. This follows a Thursday when Wall Street futures slipped and oil prices rose, after President Donald Trump made fresh remarks about Iran.
Nonfarm payrolls probably added 60,000 jobs in March, economists told Reuters, following February’s 92,000-job slide. Unemployment is expected to stay at 4.4%. “The markets could be extra choppy going into the Easter long weekend,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com, according to Thursday’s Reuters report. Reuters
Not everything grinds to a halt for the holiday. SIFMA, the industry’s trade association, is suggesting U.S. dollar bond markets wrap up by noon Eastern on Friday. CME, meanwhile, has a mix of equity, currency, interest-rate and cryptocurrency products trading on trimmed-down hours, adjusted for Good Friday and the payroll report.
The break extends to major European exchanges, too. Both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext, along with Frankfurt/Xetra, will be shut on April 3 and April 6—Good Friday and Easter Monday are off the table for trading in London. That means only a handful of key European markets will be open when Wall Street comes back Monday.
Most routine U.S. services aren’t stopping. Good Friday isn’t on the Federal Reserve’s 2026 holiday calendar, and USPS only lists 11 official holidays—Good Friday doesn’t make the cut. UPS plans to offer pickup and delivery on April 3, while FedEx notes some units will run on adjusted schedules. In short, banks, mail, and shipping networks are expected to operate as usual, though local hours could be different.
The schedule’s all over the place. Bond desks pack it in early, futures run on a limited clock, and Europe stays dark for Easter Monday—even as U.S. stocks get back to business. Any surprises from Friday’s payrolls or fresh Iran headlines over the weekend could jolt Wall Street right at Monday’s open. “We’re probably going to retrace some of the constructive action we saw earlier in the week,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth, said Thursday. SIFMA
Investors get a straightforward trading week: U.S. stock markets open as usual Thursday, then shut down for Good Friday, picking up again on Monday. The real challenge? Navigating the break while the March jobs report drops and new headlines stack up.
