Traders Return to Wall Street, With a Catch

A little bit of normalcy returns to New York City on Tuesday morning as traders return to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Sort of. About a quarter of the normal traders will return to the floor, with the rest continuing to work from home, reports Reuters. The trading floor has been closed for about two months because of the coronavirus. The roughly 100 or so traders and other staffers who return Tuesday must wear masks, undergo temperature checks, and stay within newly erected plastic partitions. Most significantly, they have to sign a waiver promising not to sue the NYSE if they get COVID-19, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The waiver makes clear that returning to the floor raises the possibility of "contracting Covid-19, respiratory failure, death, and transmitting Covid-19 to family or household members and others who may also suffer these effects,” per the Journal. Traders are not NYSE employees but work for brokerages, banks, and the like. Meanwhile, it appears the first day back to work in person should be a lively one: CNBC reports that the Dow is expected to jump about 500 points at the open because of rising optimism about a possible vaccine—in the latest news, US biotech company Novavax has begun human trials—and a general uptick in economic activity. (More New York Stock Exchange stories.)