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New York Stock Exchange To Reopen Trading Floor After Memorial Day

REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
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The New York Stock Exchange will reopen its trading floor the day after memorial day, NYSE President Stacey Cunningham announced in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

The NYSE has been closed to trading since March 14, when markets went into freefall thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Much like the U.S. economy itself, the floor will not be opening all at once, Cunningham says, but they will begin the process on May 26. (RELATED: DOJ Drops Case Against Michael Flynn)

“Thoughtful, measured reopening plans, prioritizing those businesses and people most affected by stay-at-home orders, will put us on a path to recovery. As for the NYSE, we will reopen our trading floor to a subset of floor brokers the day after Memorial Day,” Cunningham wrote. “New York’s heart beats to the rhythm of commerce. It has been slowed in the past, as on 9/11, when the terrorist attacks closed the NYSE, founded in 1792, for four trading days.”

President Donald Trump’s plan for reopening the economy calls for a phased process led by state governors. Dozens of states have already begun the process, but most of the country is still under strict social distancing rules.

As a self-imposed condition of reopening, brokers on the trading floor will be banned from using public transportation and will be screened and have their temperatures taken before entering. Those who fail to meet the requirements won’t be able to enter until they have tested negative for the virus, Cunningham says.

“Financial markets have kept operating uninterrupted throughout this crisis, even when some suggested they should not,” she wrote. “We stayed the course because of our responsibility to everyone who invests through us, including parents with college savings accounts and retirees. That responsibility requires us to do everything in our power to ensure that markets run smoothly and efficiently.”