The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq $NDAQ jointly rang their opening bells from the Oval Office on Monday, with President Donald Trump presiding. It was a historic double-first, as neither exchange had previously held the ceremony at the White House, nor had both ever opened the trading day together.
The event marked the first day of trading for Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged investment accounts available to all U.S. children 18 and under. Republicans included the accounts in their sweeping 2025 tax and spending cuts bill as a way to give children access to stock index investments. As part of a pilot program, the Treasury Department will deposit $1,000 into accounts for children whose births fall between 2025 and 2028 — only during Trump's term in office.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said before the bell ringing that 38% of American families have no exposure to equity markets. The accounts are designed to track stock market growth, similar to retirement savings accounts.
A group of corporate executives attended the Oval Office event. Among the executives at the Oval Office were Dell $DELL CEO Michael Dell and Visa $V CEO Ryan McInerney, according CNBC. Speaking as he arrived at the White House, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev described the accounts as potentially transformative.
"This makes real the promise of the American dream, not for some but for everybody," investor Brad Gerstner said, according to CNBC.
With midterm elections drawing closer, Trump has increasingly staked his political identity on the direction of financial markets. A June poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found just 33% of American adults give Trump positive marks on the economy — a figure that comes amid consumer prices having climbed 4.2% year over year, compared with a 3% rate at the start of his second term in January 2025.
After advancing 17.9% in 2025, the S&P 500 is up around 10% through the first half of this year. The bell-ringing event coincides with renewed public scrutiny of Trump's finances. Last week's 927-page financial disclosure filing revealed that brokers acting for Trump executed upward of 21,000 stock trades over the past year — a total that surpasses the known trading activity of every prior president during their time in office.