Global markets drop, spooked by China-US row over Covid-19
Hindustan TimesShares took a turn for the worse on Monday as tensions between the Trump administration and China over the origins and handling of the coronavirus pandemic rattled investors. The antagonisms threaten to undo the truce in a trade war between Washington and Beijing that was struck just before China began shutting much of its economy down in late January to fight the pandemic. A 4-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press contends that Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January. It alleges, citing variances in trade patterns, that China was downplaying the severity of its outbreak, first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, while stockpiling medical supplies. “The renewed possibility of the return of the trade war that had plagued markets since at least 2017 once again weighed on sentiment,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a commentary.