SYDNEY/LONDON—Stocks and commodities prices suffered a broad sell-off on Monday as rare protests in major Chinese cities against the country’s strict zero-COVID-19 curbs hit growth expectations in the world’s second-largest economy.
Clashes between police and protesters across several major cities over the weekend halted a tentative stocks rally that gathered pace last week as hope-starved markets had seized any morsel of good news.
Europe’s benchmark STOXX index fell 0.9 percent in early trading after MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.2 percent on selling in Chinese markets.
Oil prices, sensitive to the strictness of China’s lockdown as a barometer for demand, also slid. Brent crude dropped 3.1 percent to trade at $81.05 a barrel by 0950 GMT….