Fourth of July will mark the 278th anniversary of the founding of the United States (US). Since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, this day has been an important federal holiday in the US. In 1776, on this day, American colonies gained independence from British rule. Since then, every year, parades, fireworks, carnivals, fairs, political speeches and numerous ceremonies mark this day. 

Notably, Independence Day this year arrives Thursday and several offices and businesses will be closed to commemorate the holiday.

What Will Be Closed?

• All federal offices will be closed, including from the legislature to the courthouse.
• State offices will also be closed, including courts and the legislature.
• All major banks, including Capital One, Bank of America, PNC, Truist, CitiBank, and JPMorgan Chase, will be closed, as per USA Today.
• Stock markets will be closed. The Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange will also get the day off.
• Post offices will be closed on July 4 and there will be no mail delivery, caller service or Post Office Box service available for the holiday. 
• There will be no UPS pickup or delivery service and some store locations will be closed
• Public libraries, U.S. warehouses and the Department of Motor Vehicles will also be closed.

What Will Be Open?

• Online banking services and ATMs will be available. Capital One Cafes will stay operational for basic banking needs and services.
• FedEx will offer modified service on FedEx Office while FedEx Custom Critical will remain open. UPS Express Critical service will also be available.
• Most grocery stores under Kroger which includes Fred Meyer, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Ralphs and QFC will be open during their regular hours on July 4. Walmart and Target will also maintain regular operating hours, as per CNN.
• Most Whole Foods stores will be open during normal hours, while Trader Joe’s locations will close at 5 pm.
• Major pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens will likely be open, though some locations might have adjusted hours.
• Museums and zoos will mostly be open.

Elon Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), gave a hint on Thursday that the platform will bring features of managing financial services and will be available by the end of 2024. According to a report in The Verge, Mr Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino held an all-hands meeting where he said that the company needs some licenses for that and the condition will be fulfilled within the next few months. This is yet another push from Mr Musk to turn X into an “everything app”, like other popular services WeChat in China.

“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life,” Mr Musk said at the meeting, as per The Verge report.

“If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account,” he further said.

Ms Yaccarino said the company sees this becoming a “full opportunity” in 2024. Mr Musk added to that, saying: “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year.”

Currently, the company is working on securing money licenses across the United States so that it can start offering financial services.

Mr Musk also spoke about PayPal, which he co-founded in 1998 and bought by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. “The X/PayPal product roadmap was written by myself and David Sacks actually in July of 2000,” he was quoted as saying at Thursday’s meeting by The Verge. 

“And for some reason PayPal, once it became eBay, not only did they not implement the rest of the list, but they actually rolled back a bunch of key features, which is crazy. So PayPal is actually a less complete product than what we came up with in July of 2000, so 23 years ago,” he further said.

The billionaire had spoken about turning X into a financial hub before. In November 2022, while meeting Twitter employees for the first time, he had said that “there’s this transformative opportunity in payments”. He had then mentioned about his goal to enable “people on Twitter to able to send money anywhere in the world instantly and in real-time”.