Beijing's most populous district urged residents to stay at home on Monday as the city's COVID case numbers rose, while at least one district in Guangzhou was locked down for five days.
At Thursday's close, the S&P 500 lost 23.3 points, or 0.61%, to 3,807.3 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 178.32 points, or 1.63%, to 10,792.68 whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 194.17 points, or 0.61%, to 32,033.28.
Behind the slides have been concerns over the Ukraine-Russia war, soaring inflation, higher interest rates and, more recently, a possible US recession.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 491.27 points, or 1.56%, to 30,946.99, the S&P 500 lost 78.56 points, or 2.01%, to 3,821.55 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 343.01 points, or 2.98%, to 11,181.54.
A shock 50 basis point rate hike from the Swiss National Bank overnight sent the franc on its sharpest rise in seven years, forced an unwind of carry trades and set off a new round of worry that rising global rates will snuff out growth.