NYSE Expects Normal Open Wednesday

The New York Stock Exchange (NYX) expects to open as usual tomorrow, saying its facilities were spared when Hurricane Sandy blasted Lower Manhattan with floods and 90- mile-per-hour winds.

The floor and building of the NYSE “are fine,” Robert Rendine, a spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. Executives of the biggest U.S. equity venue expect a normal open, according to Eric Ryan, another spokesman.

U.S. exchanges are in the second day of a shutdown called to safeguard workers as Sandy barreled up the East Coast and forced hundreds of thousands of evacuations in New York City. NYSE Euronext’s building on Wall Street is close to the section of Manhattan that was deluged when the storm propelled a 13-foot sea surge as it came ashore last night.

The NYSE began testing for a back-up plan that would be necessary if storm damage prevented it from reopening the floor tomorrow. Should that be the case, NYSE Arca, its electronic market, would be deemed the primary market for NYSE-listed stocks and the Big Board wouldn’t operate. Firms started to test their systems staring at 9:30 a.m.

Streets outside the exchange at 11 Wall Street were strewn with leaves and branches at 10:30 a.m. New York time, with sandbags still stacked two high around the building. Mailboxes and trashcans were overturned at Broad Street and Beaver Street.

Water had receded from the financial district. Tourists wearing sneakers took pictures and residents walked their dogs around the neoclassic building, which opened in 1903.

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