As a result of the Executive Order of December 30, 2024, the federal government will be closed on January 9, 2025, for President Carter’s funeral. The NYSE and the Nasdaq have also announced that those exchanges will be closed on January 9, 2025, for equities trading.
There have been two more announcements related to January 9, 2025:
This unscheduled holiday has several effects on the securities practice:
- Because the SEC’s EDGAR filing system will be closed, January 9, 2025, will not be counted in the Rule 424(b) filing timing requirements. For example, an offering that prices on January 7, 2025, and is required to be filed under Rule 424(b)(2) must be filed by 5:30 p.m. on January 10, 2025. Rule 424(b)(2) offerings that price on January 8, 2025, must be filed by 5:30 p.m. on January 13, 2025.
- Due to the exchanges also being closed, check the relevant underlying documents and definitions to determine if any valuation or observation dates falling on January 9, 2025, will be postponed.
- Depending on the definition of “business day,” it is possible that, under an issuer’s offering documents, January 9, 2025 may not be a business day as some definitions exclude any day that is a legal holiday. Some definitions of a New York “business day” only exclude days when banks in New York City are closed. For those definitions, January 9, 2025, will be a good business day, as banks in New York City, as of this writing, will be open.
- If the definition of “business day” also excludes legal holidays, now that January 9, 2025, is a federal holiday, it is also no longer a business day under such a definition.
- Check your underlying documents – if a payment date must fall on a good business day and January 9, 2025, is not a good business day under the controlling documents, then the payment will be postponed – even though banks in New York City and settlement services will be open.
For valuation or observation dates occurring prior to January 9, 2025, but settling after that date, if the intervening days are defined as business days, the underlying documents should be checked to determine if the settlement date will be required to be pushed out one additional day.
[Updated Jan. 2, 2025. Originally posted Dec. 31, 2024]
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