US stocks mixed after historic two-day close

US financial markets resumed trading Wednesday after Hurricane Sandy forced the nearly unprecedented two-day closure of the country’s exchanges. It was the first multiple-day weather related closure since the blizzard of 1888, UPI reported.

Pent-up demand drove stocks higher after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg rang the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. “It's good for the city, good for country, it's good for everyone to get back to work," the mayor told CNBC, according to the Associated Press.

But by the afternoon, stocks were mostly in the red as investors digested a string of corporate earnings results and other announcements made over the past two days. The markets are “smashing together three days of trading into one as it digests both good and bad earnings announcements,” Keith Springer, president of Springer Financial Advisors in Sacramento, told MarketWatch.

Market observers said market volatility was exacerbated by traders squaring their books on the last day of the month. According to The New York Times, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.02 percent at 13,104.46 and the Nasdaq shed 0.37% to 2,976.89. The S&P 500 was up 0.06 percent at 1,412.82.