Daylight Saving Time 2026: US Stocks Open an Hour Earlier in the UK and EU, Oct 26 to 30

By Stock Titan Editorial Team Published August 28, 2025, 12:55 PM EDT · Updated October 22, 2026, 12:21 PM EDT

When do the clocks change in 2026 in the US and Europe?

The EU changes all at once. Under the EU’s summer-time directive, summer time ends “at 1.00 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time, on the last Sunday in October” in every member state. The UK government lists the same date, 25 October 2026, for its own change at 2:00 a.m. British Summer Time (GOV.UK). The US works zone by zone instead. This year daylight saving time runs “from March 8 at 2 a.m. (local time) to November 1 at 2 a.m. (local time)”, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. So New York turns back first and Chicago an hour later.

The autumn gap is always exactly one week. Europe changes on the last Sunday of October and the US on the first Sunday of November. That first Sunday of November always falls exactly seven days after the last Sunday of October. Spring is longer and less regular, because the US moves on the second Sunday of March and Europe on the last one. That made three weeks this year, March 8 to 29, and it will be two weeks in 2027, March 14 to 28.

By our count, New York and Europe are out of step on 20 of the NYSE’s trading days in 2026, 15 in March and 5 in October. Next spring’s gap has 9, because Good Friday, March 26, 2027, is an exchange holiday (NYSE holidays and trading hours). Our guide to market holidays and early closes has the full list.

What time does the US stock market open in the UK and Germany?

Both big US exchanges publish their hours in Eastern Time only. The core session runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET at the New York Stock Exchange and at Nasdaq. Eastern Time itself is what changes on November 1. In New York, nothing moves. A reader in Europe is the one who sees the bell move, first earlier on October 26, then back to normal on November 2. Our explainer on US market hours and sessions covers the full trading day in Eastern Time.

The most practical change is the stretch when Xetra’s main session and the NYSE are open together. Xetra, Deutsche Börse’s electronic stock market in Frankfurt, trades from 9:00 to 17:30 local time (Deutsche Börse). In the weeks either side New York opens at 15:30 Frankfurt time, which leaves 2 hours of overlap, and in the gap week it opens at 14:30, which leaves 3. Deutsche Börse also runs a retail service that trades some securities until 22:00, so the 2 and 3 hours describe the main session only.

London works the same way on the clock, since UK time moves with Frankfurt’s. The times above are conversions of the exchanges’ published hours, and a broker can offer narrower access; Nasdaq itself notes that “certain brokers have different pre-market and after hours trading times.”

US pre-market open time in the UK and when company news lands

Nasdaq’s pre-market session runs from 4:00 to 9:30 a.m. Eastern, and after-hours from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. (Nasdaq); NYSE Arca’s early and late sessions use the same times (NYSE). In the gap week the after-hours session ends at midnight in London and 01:00 the next morning in Frankfurt, an hour sooner than usual. Friday’s session ends early on Saturday in Germany. Our guide to pre-market and after-hours windows explains how those sessions work.

The early window matters because that is when most press releases come out, at least in StockTitan’s feed. We counted every release in the feed during last year’s gap week, October 27 to 31, 2025, when the UK and the EU had already changed and the US had not. Of 4,171 releases, 2,211 arrived between 4:00 and 9:30 a.m. Eastern, before the opening bell.

Show the data

Part	Value	Squares
Pre-market, 4:00 to 9:30 a.m. ET	53%	53
After-hours, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET	30%	30
Regular session	13%	13
Overnight, 8:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. ET	4%	4

The busiest single hour was the one right after the close: 1,006 releases between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. Eastern, more than half of them with “results” or “earnings” in the title. That week the wave began at 20:00 in London instead of 21:00. The morning peak, the 8:00 a.m. hour, reached London at lunchtime.

Show the data

Category	Releases in StockTitan’s feed	Note
12am	11
1am	7
2am	30
3am	40
4am	26
5am	48
6am	358
7am	625
8am	824	824 releases, 12:00 in London that week
9am	391
10am	119
11am	79
12pm	90
1pm	72
2pm	79
3pm	48
4pm	1,006	1,006 releases, 20:00 in London that week
5pm	172
6pm	50
7pm	34
8pm	26
9pm	16
10pm	8
11pm	12

Fed and ECB rate decisions and US GDP times in the week of October 26

The Fed’s rate-setting committee meets on October 27 and 28. Its statement comes at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on the second day, with the chair’s press conference at 2:30 p.m. (FOMC calendar; Federal Reserve calendar). That is 19:00 in Frankfurt, where it would normally be 20:00.

The next day is the crowded one. The European Central Bank’s Governing Council meets in Frankfurt on October 28 and 29 (ECB meeting calendar). It publishes its decisions at 14:15 local time and starts the press conference at 14:45 (ECB). On October 29 that is 9:15 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. in New York. So the press conference starts after Wall Street opens, where with the usual six-hour gap it would start at 8:45, before the bell.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis releases its first estimate of third-quarter GDP, and September personal income and spending, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on October 29 (BEA release schedule). With the usual six-hour gap, an 8:30 a.m. Eastern release would land at 14:30 in Frankfurt, 15 minutes after an ECB decision. This time it lands at 13:30, so the US numbers come first. The shift changes the order in which a trader in Europe sees the two, and it says nothing about what either will show.

Show the data

Date	Event
2026-10-25	UK and EU clocks go back one hour
2026-10-26	NYSE opens at 13:30 London, 14:30 Frankfurt
2026-10-28	Fed decision, 2:00 p.m. ET, 18:00 London
2026-10-29	US GDP 8:30 a.m. ET, then ECB decision 9:15 a.m. ET
2026-10-30	Employment Cost Index, 8:30 a.m. ET
2026-11-01	US clocks go back one hour
2026-11-06	October jobs report, 13:30 London

The week ends with the Employment Cost Index, a quarterly measure of what employers pay workers. It comes at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Friday, October 30, which is 12:30 in London (BLS schedule, where “all times on calendar are Eastern Time”). The October jobs report on Friday, November 6, comes after both changes and lands at the usual 13:30 London time (BLS). While the early sessions run, StockTitan’s pre-market movers board lists the stocks moving before the bell.

Futures and other markets that change hours for daylight saving time

US futures need no change. CME’s E-mini S&P 500 futures trade from Sunday 6:00 p.m. to Friday 5:00 p.m. Eastern, with a daily pause from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern (CME Group contract specs). Chicago and New York change their clocks on the same night. Seen from London, the daily restart comes at 22:00 in the gap week instead of 23:00.

The London oil market is the surprise. ICE Futures Europe wrote in a January circular that its platform’s daily maintenance window, the break when it is offline, is “locked in US Eastern Time (ET)”. When the US and London clocks are not aligned, it added, “the trading hours will temporarily adjust” (ICE Futures Europe Circular 26/006). Its temporary schedule for October 25 to 30 lists Brent crude futures and options trading from 00:00 to 22:00 GMT, which is 8:00 p.m. the previous evening to 6:00 p.m. in New York. Even the settlement price, the official end-of-day price, is set in the two minutes to 2:30 p.m. New York time that week (ICE temporary trading times, October 2026).

Brazil does the same from the other side. B3 says its trading hours change “due to the end of daylight saving time in the United States”. From Tuesday, November 3, the closing auction of its stock market, the final minutes in which the closing price is set, ends at 18:00 Brasília time instead of 17:00 (B3 Circular Letter 050/2026-VNC; the 17:00 end comes from the earlier B3 notice 005/2026-PRE, which the new letter replaces). The new letter also gives B3’s DAX and Euro Stoxx 50 futures new hours from October 26, after the European change.

Is daylight saving time ending for good?

The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act, H.R. 139, on July 14, 2026 by 308 votes to 117 (House vote record). The Senate received it the next day and sent it to its Commerce Committee (GovInfo). The bill’s status record, last updated September 8, still lists that referral as its latest action (GovInfo bill status). The bill would repeal the law that sets the spring and autumn changes and move standard time an hour ahead, which amounts to summer time all year.

In the EU, the European Commission proposed ending seasonal clock changes in September 2018, and the European Parliament backed it in March 2019. The file still reads “Awaiting Council’s 1st reading position” (European Parliament Legislative Observatory, 2018/0332(COD)).

Our reading of what that would mean for markets is simple arithmetic. If the US stayed on summer time all year while Europe kept switching, New York would sit four hours behind London every winter. The one week described here would become the normal winter pattern.

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The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.

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