New York follows Eastern Time: EST (UTC−5) in winter and EDT (UTC−4) from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, with changes at 2:00 a.m. Europe changes on the last Sundays of March and October, so the New York–London gap shrinks to 4 hours for two to three weeks each spring and one week each autumn — a classic cause of missed transatlantic meetings.
On 18 November 1883, known as "the day of two noons", North American railroads replaced dozens of local times with standard zones; clocks in New York were set back by about four minutes. Congress made time zones and daylight saving time federal law with the Standard Time Act of 1918.
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq trade from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, and because US markets are the largest in the world, many international companies set reporting deadlines in Eastern Time. The overlap with London, roughly 8:00 a.m. to noon in New York, is the busiest window of the day in global currency trading.
New Year's Eve in Times Square has featured a ball drop since 1907. When the ball reaches the bottom at midnight, it is already 5 a.m. in London and 2 p.m. on New Year's Day in Tokyo — most of the world has been celebrating for hours.
| City | January | July |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 09:00(−3 h) | 09:00(−3 h) |
| São Paulo | 14:00(+2 h) | 13:00(+1 h) |
| London | 17:00(+5 h) | 17:00(+5 h) |
| Paris | 18:00(+6 h) | 18:00(+6 h) |
| Dubai | 21:00(+9 h) | 20:00(+8 h) |
| Mumbai | 22:30(+10 h 30 min) | 21:30(+9 h 30 min) |
| Singapore | 01:00(+13 h, next day) | 00:00(+12 h, next day) |
| Tokyo | 02:00(+14 h, next day) | 01:00(+13 h, next day) |
| Sydney | 04:00(+16 h, next day) | 02:00(+14 h, next day) |
New York uses Eastern Time — EST (UTC−5) in winter and EDT (UTC−4) from March to November.
Yes. Clocks spring forward one hour on the second Sunday in March and fall back on the first Sunday in November.
New York is UTC−5 (EST) from November to March and UTC−4 (EDT) from March to November.
New York is usually 5 hours behind London. For two to three weeks in March and about one week around the end of October it is only 4 hours behind, because the US and UK change clocks on different dates.