China's first coronavirus death in six months sparked fears officials would reimpose strict, economically painful restrictions to fight outbreaks across the world's second-biggest economy.
The fall in European and US stocks came after most Asian markets including Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and Shanghai ended lower, although Bangkok, Tokyo and Wellington were up. "No one can tell whether Xi Jinping would pull back from the reopening plans, which would be another disaster for the Chinese stocks, and for the investor confidence," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank.