december

Published on
18/08/2026 – 11:05 GMT+2

The Nasdaq announced it will begin trading US stocks for nearly 23 hours a day from Sunday 6 December onwards.

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The move, still subject to SEC approval, means Nasdaq’s trading day will stretch from Sunday evening to Friday evening with barely a pause.

For European investors, the new window of 9pm to 4am ET will be 3am to 10am CET, meaning Europeans could be trading Nasdaq-listed stocks for almost an entire session before London opens.

Nasdaq already runs extended sessions from 4am to 9:30am, called pre-market session, and 4pm to 8pm ET, named after-hours session, around its core 9:30am to 4pm hours, but access to that early and late trading has largely been exclusive to institutional investors with direct market connections.

Nasdaq president Tal Cohen has framed the expansion as a way to “broaden investor access and expand wealth-building opportunities” for everyone else.

The pitch is also backed by numbers as foreign holdings of US equities reached $17 trillion (€14.6tn) by mid-2024, up 97% since 2019, a surge Nasdaq wants to capture directly rather than cede to platforms already open around the clock.

A market that increasingly never sleeps

Traditional exchanges have been under mounting pressure to broaden access and increase available hours.

Geopolitical shocks under the Trump administration have repeatedly landed when Wall Street was shut, most notably when US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were announced on a Saturday morning in February, forcing traders onto crypto exchanges and decentralised platforms to price oil, gold and silver in real time.

Those venues, along with newer tools such as tokenised real-world assets, which are digital tokens representing ownership of stocks, bonds or commodities, and perpetual futures contracts that let investors bet on an asset’s price with no expiry date, have shown that demand for round-the-clock trading does not wait for exchanges to open.

Nasdaq is also not moving alone.

Rival NYSE has already won SEC approval for a 22-hour day running from 1:30am to 11:30pm ET, while Cboe, the largest exchange for options contracts in the US, has outlined similar ambitions.

Nasdaq first signalled its own intent to go nearly continuous back in March with this week’s announcement filling in the details.

The new evening session serves as the first concrete building block, opening the market for nearly 23 hours in a five-day trading week, as the exchange ultimately wants to offer 24/7 trading.

Deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says she will return in December despite facing a death sentence in absentia, as Dhaka seeks her extradition and India and Bangladesh work to repair strained ties.

Spain’s players looked like they were ready to explode as they waited for team captain Rodri to lift the World Cup trophy into the air following their 1-0 win over Argentina in Sunday’s final.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino looked a bit anxious as he wanted the newly crowned champions to have their moment but didn’t want to offend a good friend who happens to be one of the most powerful men in the world.

And President Trump looked rather clueless as he lingered on the stage at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., for an awkward amount of time following the trophy presentation.

Trump had watched the championship game from a luxury box with Infantino and First Lady Melania Trump, among many others. He was booed by the crowd during the national anthems and again when he took the field with Infantino after the game for the awards ceremony.

After presenting silver medals to Argentina’s players and gold to Spain’s, Trump and Infantino carried the World Cup trophy together across the stage and handed it to Golden Ball winner Rodri, who was standing in front of his teammates as they awaited their big moment.

The presidents of FIFA and the U.S. both shook hands with Rodri, but only one of them quickly moved off to the side. When Trump hung around to shake hands and speak with midfielder Gavi, Rodri put his hand on the president’s shoulder and appeared to gently nudge him toward the side of the stage away from the group.

As he walked off, Trump shook hands and talked with a few other players, then stopped and stood directly next to the group of players. Infantino sprinted across the stage and appeared to attempt to usher Trump out of frame.

Trump stayed put, however, clapping and smiling until Rodri thrusted the trophy skyward and gold confetti shot from cannons behind them to officially start the celebration. Then Trump strolled away to join Infantino, leaving La Roja’s players to celebrate on their own.

It could have been much worse … like, say, at last summer’s FIFA Club World Cup final, which was also held at MetLife Stadium. Trump accompanied Infantino onstage to present the trophy to Chelsea — but did not accompany him off the stage immediately following the presentation.

Instead, Trump remained out there front and center among the Chelsea players, much to the visable confusion of some of them. He stood right next to Reece James, clapping and smiling as the team captain hoisted the trophy in triumph and a massive celebration erupted around him.

As the president of one of the three 2026 World Cup host countries (with Canada and Mexico), Trump’s presence has loomed large. In December, Infantino awarded Trump with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize during the tournament’s final draw in December.

Earlier this month, Trump called Infantino to have FIFA reconsider a red card against U.S. striker Folarin Balogun that would have prevented the star player from taking part in the American’s round of 16 game against Belgium (the penalty was rescinded, causing international uproar, but the U.S. still lost the game 4-1).

“You don’t need people to compliment you, Mr. President,” Infantino said Friday during a reception hosted by the president at Trump Tower in Manhattan, “but this World Cup would not have been such an incredible success without you,”