Caixin (April 23) reported that Huawei Technologies Co.’s rapid growth had slowed to a crawl in the first quarter after Covid-19 depressed demand for smartphones and networking gear around the globe. Huawei reported a 1.4% gain in revenue to 182.2 billion yuan ($25.7 billion) in the period, down from 19% over all of 2019. Its net profit margin shrank to 7.3% from 8% a year earlier. The novel coronavirus hammered demand for the smartphones Huawei relies on to compete with Apple Inc. and drive growth, especially now that the global rollout of 5G networks has decelerated. The pandemic came on top of a difficult 2019, when the Trump administration blacklisted China’s largest technology company and waged a campaign to get allies to exclude its telecom equipment.