Commuters struggled in the absence of suburban train and bus services into New York City, where several inches of snow accumulation and drifts of several feet snarled morning rush hour travel.
On Wall Street, workers pitched in electronically or braved the storm to get to their jobs, so trading was unlikely to take a heavy hit, observers said.
"I don't think it will affect the volume, and volumes have been light anyway," said Alan Valdes, director of floor trading at Kabrik Trading. "I would guess volumes would be light whether it was sunny and in the 70s or not." The wintry blast, which began on Thursday and was predicted to last through Saturday, was the third heavy storm to hit the region in a month.
Bond trading was light due to the inclement weather, said William Larkin, fixed income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Massachusetts.
"New York is probably out of the picture," he said.
Parts of Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, upstate New York and Massachusetts could expect snow accumulations of as much as two feet, the National Weather Service said.
The storm was moving very slowly and was expected to hover over the Northeast through Saturday, the NWS said.
The impact of the bad winter weather could be felt throughout a US economy still struggling to emerge from recession.
"The issue ... has been the unusual weather this quarter, said Subodh Kumar, chief investment strategist at Subodh Kumar & Associates, in Toronto, In New York City, subway service was slowed and buses struggled to navigate snow-covered streets.
Strong winds, gusting up to 97 kph in eastern Long Island, posed danger to those venturing outside, the NWS said.
Among the storm's casualties, a man was struck and killed by a snow-laden tree limb that fell in Central Park on Thursday, authorities said. The roof of a home in suburban New Jersey collapsed under the heavy snow, and a snowplow and an automobile collided in suburban New York, causing an undermined number of injuries, authorities said.
Some 28,000 people were without power in suburban New York, and more than 2,000 customers suffered outages in the city, Con Edison said. More than 2,000 customers were without power in New Jersey, local power authorities said.
Schools were closed in New York City, Philadelphia and elsewhere in the Northeastern states.
Hundreds of flights were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport, while delays were reported at John F.
Kennedy International Airport and flights canceled at Philadelphia's airport, authorities said.
Winds gusted up to 80 kph in Philadelphia, which declared a snow emergency, its fourth of the winter.
Amtrak canceled regional trains in upstate New York, and commuter bus service was suspended in northern New Jersey.
