NEW YORK -- Financial markets around the globe reported Saturday their electronic trading systems had not succumbed to Y2K computer hitches or glitches on the first day of the millennium.
In industrialized and developing nations across the planet, stock and futures exchanges, securities dealers, banks, clearance houses, regulators, electronic data vendors and currency dealing systems said all systems were "go" for 2000.But while markets were spared digital disaster on the first day of the year, securities industry officials warned the world would not return to capitalism as usual until the first trades of the millennium had been conducted, processed and settled.
"We're A-OK," said Don Kittell, executive vice president of the U.S.-based Securities Industry Association. "But this is, in a way, early days for us...we have not yet traded anything in the year 2000."
Kittell said the SIA would not end its round-the-clock monitoring of the financial sector in the world's largest economy until Thursday Jan. 6, the date on which trades executed on Monday, Jan. 3, are finally processed and settled.
Across the globe, the financial industry has been on alert for any problems related to Year 2000 (Y2K) rollover, when it was feared some computers could misread 2000 as 1900, causing systems controlling vast flows of capital to malfunction.
Major exchanges were closed on Saturday, although stock markets in Oman and Bangladesh reported smooth operations--and slight gains--on the first trading day of the millennium.
The world's largest markets open for business only on Monday or Tuesday after a long holiday weekend.
The Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will be the first major financial markets to open, with electronic futures dealing beginning Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. local time .
Both exchanges reported no problems as 1999 ticked away.
A few hours later, Monday morning in Asia, securities and bond trading begins in Hong Kong and Singapore, where officials say operations should be bug-free.
Japan's largest bourse, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), said its internal system checks for Y2K-related problems had gone off smoothly. Tokyo markets open Tuesday.
The New York Stock Exchange reported no problems, and normal Wall Street trading is due to resume at 9:30 a.m. EST Monday morning.
"The best-laid plans of mice and men are apt to go astray, but this seems to have worked out fine," said Michael Dorfsman, spokesman for the U.S.-based Bond Market Association. He said U.S. bond trading would resume as usual on Monday.
Leading foreign currency dealing systems are ready for the restart of trade, officials at Reuters Group Plc and rival Electronic Broking Systems (EBS) said. And New York currency traders reported conducting glitch-free mock dealing sessions.
The world's three big financial news and information providers--Reuters, Bloomberg L.P. and Bridge--had not reported any problems in their own systems related to the millennium bug.
In the United States, where firms have spent years and billions of dollars to prepare for the date change, the SIA said a handful of minor glitches had been reported, such as trade reports listing the year as 1900 instead of 2000.
The SIA said such problems were isolated and quickly remedied.
In Washington, five U.S. regulatory bodies issued a joint statement declaring the nation's financial system glitch-free so far.
The New York Federal Reserve, which deals directly with money-center banks in the international financial markets, said payments systems were operating as usual as no problems were reported among broker-dealers.
Exchanges in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Morocco all said their systems were operating smoothly.
The London Stock Exchange said it had seen no system problems related to the change in the year date so far, adding that tests were continuing as scheduled, ahead of the market opening at 0800 GMT on Jan. 4.
London's LIFFE derivatives exchange said the new year had been trouble-free so far, but that checks were still being made. The exchange will reopen for trading at 0730 GMT Tuesday.
In Germany, exchange operator Deutsche Boerse AG said links to market participants had been successfully tested after the completion of an internal security check and the first connections with clients restored at 0800 GMT.
A spokesman for German-Swiss futures exchange Eurex said that it had encountered no systems difficulties and was reconnecting its clients in preparation for Monday trading.
In Bombay, Indian government debt traded normally on the National Stock Exchange, the bourse said.