U.S. stock exchanges say prepared for coronavirus

By John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock exchanges said on Wednesday they were watching coronavirus-related developments closely and had contingency plans in place to continue running if any of their operations were affected.

"The NYSE is carefully monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and has robust contingency plans, tested regularly, to enable continuous operation of the NYSE exchanges should any facilities be impacted," a spokesman for the NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc <ICE.N>, said in a statement.

NYSE runs five U.S. stock exchanges, while Cboe Global Markets <CBOE.Z> runs four, and Nasdaq Inc <NDAQ.O> runs three.

"Cboe has business continuity plans in place for a wide variety of scenarios that could potentially impact operations. We are closely monitoring developments related to coronavirus," a spokeswoman for Cboe said.

"The safety of Nasdaq employees, vendors, visitors is paramount. We continue to follow the updates and act and communicate accordingly," a spokesman for Nasdaq said.

(Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Tom Brown)