Bartiromo exits CNBC reporter slot

CNBC reporter Maria Bartiromo, whose breathless reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was a symbol of the 1990s boom, is leaving her reporting perch.

She said Wednesday she was leaving CNBC’s morning show “Squawk Box” to concentrate on other duties at CNBC and NBC.

Bartiromo was the first TV reporter permitted on the exchange’s floor, where she would deliver rapid-fire specifics on the market’s rise and fall -- and she wasn’t roundly welcomed when she started in 1996.

“There were people who didn’t want me there, and they made it known. They tried to intimidate me,” she said.

Bartiromo, who just signed a five-year contract with NBC, has a weekly interview show and wants to do more for “Closing Bell,” CNBC’s afternoon market program. She’s also starting her own production company and is interested in other opportunities at NBC News, she said.

CNBC’s senior trading correspondent, Alexis Glick, will replace her at the stock exchange.