Commodity Exchanges Will Stay in New York : Wall Street: The four had considered moving to New Jersey in what would have been a blow to the Big Apple.
Wall Street’s four major commodity exchanges will remain in New York under a plan disclosed today by the chairmen of the exchanges, who had earlier threatened to leave the nation’s financial center for New Jersey.
The announcement is a relief for the city, which has been battered by a flurry of layoffs on recession-ridden Wall Street over the last several months and is confronting an overall economic decline.
The exchanges involved are the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange Inc., established in 1882 and the world’s leading market in those commodities; the Commodity Exchange Inc., established in 1933 and the world’s most active metals market; the New York Cotton Exchange, established in 1870 and the world’s only raw cotton and citrus market, and the New York Mercantile Exchange, established in 1872 and the world’s dominant energy market.
The four employ about 12,000 people, a figure that is expected to rise sharply in coming years as the markets battle for business with rival exchanges in Chicago and elsewhere.
New York also is home to the New York and American stock exchanges, as well as headquarters of many of the nation’s brokerage firms.
The commodities exchanges, where options and futures for items such as gold, platinum, oil, coffee, cocoa, sugar and currencies are traded, are considered the hub of an industry that annually generates more than $1 billion in goods, services and salaries.
The heads of the exchanges said they’ll recommend to the membership that they move to a 1.2-million-square-foot building on a city-owned site two blocks north of their current home at the World Trade Center complex in 1994.
They said the city has agreed to provide unspecified tax benefits and other forms of public support in exchange for their staying.
The exchanges had considered moving to the Harborside Financial Center in Jersey City, N.J. Members of the exchanges will be asked to ratify the decision in December. If they fail to do so, the exchanges will remain at the World Trade Center.
