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Nike, VF and Hundreds of Other Firms Update Their Risk Disclosures in Response to Coronavirus

Hundreds of companies are grappling with how to disclose to investors the details of the coronavirus‘ impact on their business.

Nike Inc., Jimmy Choo parent Capri Holdings Ltd. and Vans owner VF Corp. are among the footwear firms that have updated their risk disclosures amid the spread of the deadly outbreak, which has interrupted supply chains, led to shuttered stores or decreased foot traffic and delayed many workers’ returns to factories or corporate offices across the globe. As of Monday morning, the illness has claimed 3,000 lives and sickened 89,000.

For certain large companies, Monday is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s deadline to file their annual 10-K reports. In a joint statement, the chairmen of the SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board advised firms to coordinate with their audit committees to “ensure that their financial reporting, auditing and review processes are as robust as practicable in light of the circumstances.”

Concerns over the coronavirus have already led several companies to issue revenue and profit warnings for the year, as lower sales stemming from widespread store closures in heavily affected regions are forecasted to dent their fiscal-year bottom lines.

Investors, on the other hand, were faced with a brutal trading week on Wall Street: Over the course of six days last week, all three major benchmark indexes fell into a correction, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average logging its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis and the S&P 500 losing $3.4 trillion in market value.

At market open on Monday, the Dow — which swung more than 1,000 points overnight — was up 300 points, while the S&P grew 24 points and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 105 points.

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