Fear over the new coronavirus epidemic sent global stock markets and oil prices plunging Monday, touched off prison riots in Italy and caused a cascading shutdown of sites and events ranging from Saudi schools to a Holocaust march.
While many of Beijing's white-collar workers returned to work as new infections subsided in China, some 16 million people under a widespread lockdown in northern Italy struggled to navigate the new rules of their mass isolation.
Global oil prices suffered their worst percentage losses since the start of the 1991 Gulf War, and the S&P 500 plunged so quickly in the first few minutes of trading that it triggered a 15-minute halt in trading.
