The New York Stock Exchange temporarily closes its famous trading floor

The Wall Street Stock Exchange, operated by the New York Stock Exchange, announced Wednesday that it was going to temporarily close its famous floor from Monday, where a few traders still physically meet.

The closure of the building will not, however, affect trading, which will continue in electronics as is the case on most other stock exchanges such as the Nasdaq, assured ICE, the parent company of the NYSE, in a statement.

This decision, taken “to protect the health and well-being” of the people concerned, will also apply to other offices managed by the group in New York (NYSE American Options) and San Francisco (NYSE Arca Options).

ICE is thus in the footsteps of the Chicago Stock Exchange operated by CME, which closed its own floor last Friday.

These two places remain among the last financial markets in the world where brokers are physically present to buy or sell assets.

The New York Stock Exchange has been preparing for several weeks for the possibility that its building could be affected, including conducting tests for fully electronic exchanges.

He has also increased the health measures to prevent the arrival of the disease on his floor, made famous by the images of traders screaming or jubilant at the mercy of the twists of the stock market indices.

These are much less numerous than in the heyday of frenetic activity on Wall Street, the vast majority of exchanges now taking place from the computers in the trading rooms of each financial company.

But they continue to participate in the stock market, in particular the market makers who are supposed to ensure the good performance of the exchanges for the actions which are assigned to them. The latter will continue to perform this task by computer, the operator said on Wednesday.

“Even if we decide, as a precaution, to close the floors, we still firmly believe that the markets must remain open and accessible to investors,” said NYSE boss Stacey Cunningham, saying that all markets will continue to operate according to the usual hours.

Faced with the panic movement that has gripped the world stock markets since the rise of the pandemic of the new coronavirus, some observers have raised the idea of ​​completely disconnecting the markets for a few days.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin firmly ruled out this hypothesis on Tuesday, however suggesting that the hours could be cut short. This possibility has already been rejected by the CME.

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