Hurricane Sandy will keep financial markets closed Tuesday

NEW YORK (AP) — Major U.S. stock and bond markets will be closed because of Hurricane Sandy on Tuesday.

It will be the first time since 1888 that the New York Stock Exchange will have been closed for two consecutive days because of bad weather. The cause then was a blizzard that left drifts as high as 40 feet in the streets of New York City.

Much of the East Coast was at a standstill Monday as the storm approached. Mass transit and schools were closed across the region ahead of the storm hitting land, which was expected to happen later today.

Areas around the Financial District were part of a mandatory evacuation zone. The storm surge is already pushing water over seawalls in the southern tip of Manhattan.