Cuomo Rings NYSE Bell To Celebrate Trade Floor Reopening

NEW YORK CITY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning to celebrate the reopening of its trading floor.

It was a masked Cuomo who rang the iconic bell, bumped elbows and air-high-fived in celebration of the reopening of the NYSE trading floor, closed since March 23 as new coronavirus spread across the city.

"Today I ring in the start of the trading day and the return of traders to the floor of the NYSE," Cuomo tweeted. "In the two months the floor was dark, NYers bent the curve and slowed the spread of this virus."

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The trading floor will see new rules in effect to protect traders from the virus, according to NYSE officials.

"This moment comes as we begin working together across America to restart our economy," NYSE President Stacey Cunningham stated on the exchange website. "We are starting cautiously."

Only 25 percent of the usual number of traders can return to work, and those traders most avoid public transportation, wear masks and follow strict social distancing rules on the floor.

To access the floor, traders must submit to temperature checks, with entry barred to those who fail.

As upstate New York regions launch into slow reopening process, New York City is still struggling to meet the seven benchmarks, set by Cuomo, that would show the area is ready.

New York City was hit especially hard by the pandemic, with 196,000 confirmed cases and an estimated 21,259 deaths, city data show.

The stock market has seen sharp turns since the pandemic began, but news of a potential coronavirus vaccine and decreasing death tolls have analysts hoping prices will soar Tuesday.

The Dow rose almost 600 points, or 2.4 percent, shortly after Tuesday's open, according to the exchange.

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