President Trump is planning to issue an executive order establishing two new federal holiday, according to Axios.
The move would make Dec 24 and Dec 26 holidays, in addition to Christmas which is already a day off. It would apply to Federal workers but not state and local governments
In reality, many workers already get these days off but some are forced to use holidays. This time of year is a great time to unwind and spend time with family and anything that stretches that timeline is good news, even if it results in a slight hit to productivity.
The New York Stock Exchange currently doesn’t close for either the 24th or 26th but there is an early close at 1 pm ET on the 24th. Liquidity is low at that time of year and it might be beneficial to close the market anyway. There is no obligation for exchanges to follow the federal calendar and don’t for Columbus Day and Veterans Day.
For the bond market, SIFMA also doesn’t follow the federal calendar so ultimately this would have little direct effect on anything but could be an important signaling mechanism, or at least a way for Trump to score back some points with federal workers after the government shutdown.
Axois also notes that it’s not clear if Trump even has the authority to grant multiple days off by executive order but I would imagine Congress would find that hard to fight. The most recent Juneteenth holiday was passed by Congress.
Other orders that Trump is considering are reclassifying cannabis and tariff rebate checks.
On tariffs, the Supreme Court is likely to decide early in the year on whether tariffs are legal. If not, issuing rebates could cause a big hole in the deficit, in particularly because tariffs may have to be refunded
