A potential gaping hole in the world's containment measures is that countries like Indonesia are reporting 'no cases'. Either there really are no cases (perhaps due to the tropical climate) or they're going unreported.

I was struck by how China's announcement that cases were leveling off coincided with the day many people went back to work. Perhaps they fudged the data to inject optimism into the society and markets?

Regarding the markets, there's absolutely a correction coming, if not an outright crash. This period reminds me a lot of that just before the dotcom crash of 2000.

Imagine the hit that airlines and any tourist related businesses are taking - there must be some knock-on effect from that.

Interestingly the Chinese market fell 8% in a day in the beginning - then 'a rumour' emerged that a Chinese scientist had found a vaccine and it all rebounded. Considering it would take at least a year to get a vaccine up and running even if one was found then that sounded like market manipulation - similar to what you mention above.