What to read in the morning before the stock market opens

The stock market is a series of exchanges where shares in public companies, as well as bonds and commodities like gold and oil, are bought and sold. There are a number of stock exchanges across the world, including the New York Stock Exchange, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and the London Stock Exchange.

Each day, stock exchanges across the world open and close at specific times for trading. While there are no guarantees with investing, stock market experts will have done extensive research before the exchanges open to give themselves a good idea of how stocks that day are expected to rise and fall in value.

Anything can cause a stock’s price to go up or down, from breaking company news or a PR crisis to geopolitical events such as wars and global pandemics. Even factors like innovation and technology can affect the value of stocks.

While you may not be a professional stock trader, if you’ve invested money into stocks and shares, it’s wise to have an idea of how the financial markets and the economy are performing in order to give you the best chance of maximising the return on your investment. To help you do this, we’ve put together a list of what to read the morning before the stock market opens.

What should I read the morning before the stock market opens?

Before the stock market opens in the morning, it’s a good idea to find out what you can expect to happen for that day’s trading by visiting financial news sites like the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and the BBC and Yahoo! Finance.

You will also benefit from doing your own research into how the global markets are or have been performing, or — for more of a brief overview — you could sign up for Bloomberg’s ‘Five Things to Start Your Day’ daily email.

Read on to find out more about the best places to get stock market information.

Top five financial news sites to visit for stock market information

Some of the best financial news sites are:

1. The Financial Times

Founded in 1888, The Financial Times has long been respected for its authoritative and accurate coverage of business and economic current affairs.

While it is a British daily newspaper that was originally only printed in broadsheet format, it is recognised internationally and is now published digitally, allowing investors, economists and businesspeople around the world to access it easily.

2. The Wall Street Journal

The second go-to newspaper for investors is the Wall Street Journal.

Founded just one year after the Financial Times, it too has led the way in chronicling the rise of industries around the world.

Informative and well-written, it covers topics including current events, politics, business, economics and global trade.

3. MarketWatch

Like the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch is owned by News Corp and provides financial information, stock market data, analysis and business news.

4. The BBC

The BBC’s Market Data section gives a daily overview of the FTSE 100 (the top one hundred companies by market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange), as well as breaking news stories relating to stock markets around the world.

5. Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo’s sister site reports on all the latest stock market, economic, cryptocurrency and political news. It also offers online tools for personal finance management, such as free stock quotes, portfolio management resources and international market data.

Where else can I get information about how stocks are performing?

Researching the global markets

Considering there are 60 major stock exchanges in the world, this will take some time, but looking at all of the stock markets in different time zones to see what they’re doing can provide some extremely valuable insights. 

To narrow down your reading, the top ten largest stock exchanges in the world are:

1. New York Stock Exchange
2. Nasdaq Stock Market
3. Tokyo Stock Exchange
4. Shanghai Stock Exchange
5. Stock Exchange of Hong Kong
6. London Stock Exchange
7. Euronext Amsterdam
8. Shenzhen Stock Exchange
9. Toronto Stock Exchange
10. Frankfurt Stock Exchange

If you’re based in the west, it’s worth doing some extra research on the Asian markets to find out why they did what they did before looking at the futures markets to find out what’s to be expected on the American and European stock exchanges in the hours to come.

Bloomberg’s ‘Five Things to Start Your Day’ email

For more of a brief overview of what the stock market is looking like, sign up for the Bloomberg ‘Five Things to Start Your Day’ daily email. If a story in it seems particularly relevant, you can then go on to read about it in more depth. 

You can sign up to the newsletter here.

What is the best time to buy and sell shares?

You might be wondering whether it’s really necessary to read up on how the market is performing just before the stock market opens. But it’s a good idea to do so, because it’s thought that the best time of day to buy and sell shares is in the first couple of hours of the market opening. As mentioned, stock prices are affected by a number of different things — including daily market news, which is factored into stock prices first thing in the morning. This means that volatility is highest in the morning — and where there’s volatility, there’s opportunity.

Note that different markets open at different times, though (see below), so it’s important to be aware of your chosen market’s “best” time in the time zone you’re currently in.

When it comes to which day of the week is best for stock market trading, some argue that Monday is best. It’s thought that after the weekend — when trading ceases — the stock market will pick up where it left off. This means that if stocks and shares are up, it’s likely that they will continue in that vein, and if they’re trending downwards, Monday would be a good day to invest in undervalued assets. On the other hand, Mondays are much busier, meaning there’s more competition between traders and investors.

Other experts would argue that Friday is a better time than Monday to sell because weekend optimism leads to stocks being priced higher than they usually would be.

It just goes to show that nothing is certain when it comes to investing — including what time is best for buying and selling stocks — and it’s important to remember that there are never any guarantees.

What are the trading hours of the world’s largest stock exchanges?

The tables below tell you what time each of the world’s major stock exchanges open and close each day.

Trading hours of North America stock exchanges

Trading hours of Asia and the Middle East stock exchanges

Trading hours of United Kingdom and Europe stock exchanges

Trading hours of South America stock exchanges

Trading hours of Africa stock exchanges

Trading hours of Australia/Oceania stock exchanges

Summary

if you’ve got money invested in stocks and shares, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with how the financial markets and the economy are performing, in order to give you the best chance of maximising the return on your investment. But with a wealth of stock market information available on the internet, this can sound like an overwhelming task. So it might be helpful to know that some of the best financial news sites include the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, the BBC and Yahoo!. You might also want to consider doing your own research into how the global markets are or have been performing. Alternatively, if you’re looking for more of a brief overview, you can sign up to Bloomberg’s ‘Five Things to Start Your Day’ daily email.

It’s wise to read up on how the stock market is performing just before the stock market opens, because it’s thought that the best time of day to buy and sell shares is in the first couple of hours of the market opening. While nothing is certain when it comes to investing, it’s also argued that Mondays and Fridays are the best days of the week for stock market trading.