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The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets. The Federal Reserve temporarily had
reduced contact with banks because of outages of switching equipment in the lower NY financial district. Contact and control
over the money supply, including immediate liquidity for banks, was restored within hours. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE),
the American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17. NYSE facilities
and remote data processing sites were not damaged by the attack, but member firms, customers and markets were unable to communicate
due to major damage to the telephone exchange facility near the World Trade Center. When the stock markets reopened on September
17, 2001, after the longest closure since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”)
stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the
DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history. U.S. stocks lost $1.2 trillion in value
for the week. As of 2007, Wall and Broad Streets near the New York Stock Exchange remained barricaded and guarded to prevent
a physical attack upon the building.
The economy of Lower Manhattan, which by itself is the third-largest business district in the United States (after Midtown
Manhattan and the Chicago Loop) was devastated in the immediate aftermath. Thirty percent (31.2 million sq ft, 2.7 million
m³) of Lower Manhattan office space was either damaged or destroyed. The 41-story Deutsche Bank Building, neighboring the
World Trade Center, was subsequently closed because extensive damage made it unfit for habitation or restoration and it was
scheduled for demolition. Power, telephone, and gas were cut off in much of Lower Manhattan. People were not permitted to
enter the SoHo and Lower Manhattan area without extensive inspection. Much of what was destroyed was valuable Class-A space.
The pre-2001 trend of moving jobs out of Lower Manhattan to Midtown and New Jersey was accelerated. Many questioned whether
these lost jobs would ever be restored, and whether the damaged tax base could ever recover.Economic studies of the effects
of 9/11 have confirmed that the impact of the attacks on the Manhattan office market as well as on office employment was more
limited than initially expected because of the strong need for face-to-face interaction in the financial services industry.
The rebuilding has been inhibited by a lack of agreement on priorities. For example, Mayor Bloomberg had made New York's
bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics the core of his capital development plan from 2002 until mid-2005, and Governor Pataki largely
delegated his role to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation which has been widely criticized for doing little with the
enormous funding directed to the rebuilding efforts.On the sites of the totally destroyed buildings, one, 7 World Trade Center,
has a new office tower which was completed in 2006. The Freedom Tower is currently under construction at the site and at 1,776
ft (541 m) upon completion in 2010, will become the tallest building in North America and one of the tallest in the world.
Three more towers are expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site, and will be located one block east of where
the original towers stood.
North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel decreased significantly upon its
reopening. The attacks led to nearly a 20% cutback in air travel capacity, and severely exacerbated financial problems in
the struggling U.S. airline industry.
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