Stocks savaged, Italy on lockdown, prisons in uproar as coronavirus spreads

Wall Street executives had been invited to the White House on Wednesday for talks on the coronavirus.

ROME: All of Italy under lockdown, reeling financial markets and rioting prisoners made clear on Monday how the global coronavirus epidemic was extending its reach into all aspects of social and economic life.

Major European stock markets dived more than 7%, Japanese indexes fell over 5% and U.S. markets sank over 7% after Saudi Arabia launched an oil price war with Russia that sent investors already spooked by the coronavirus epidemic running for the exits.