Last checked at 
* Trump plans tariffs on
* Industrial stocks weaker
* Dow down 1.64 pct, S&P 500 down 1.41 pct, Nasdaq down 1.30pct(Updates to mid-afternoon, changes byline)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
March 22 (Reuters) -
Trump, according to a presidential memorandum he signed,will target the imports only after a consultation period.
The Dow and Nasdaq stock indexes had fallen as much as 2percent while the benchmark S&P was down as much as 1.85 percentbefore midday, as investors fretted over the potential scale of
"It appears the market now sort of assumes the worst out ofthe president until they hear differently because he is just nota very good communicator," said Craig Callahan, president ofICON Funds in
Callahan said the market was still in the process ofrecovering from a selloff in February that put stocks incorrection territory, and was sensitive to negative information.
"The market sentiment isn’t good so when they get hit withsomething like trade tariffs they are more susceptible to itthan they would be at another time," said Callahan.
Still, major industrials companies stayed lower. Boeing, Caterpillar and 3M were the biggestdrags on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, sliding 2-3 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 403.99 points,or 1.64 percent, to 24,278.32, the S&P 500 lost 38.28points, or 1.41 percent, to 2,673.65 and the Nasdaq Compositedropped 95.54 points, or 1.3 percent, to 7,249.75.
The S&P was on track for its biggest daily percentage dropsince Feb. 8.
Selling was broad, with only the defensive utilities, up 1.18 percent, and real estate, up 0.76percent, on the plus side out of 11 major S&P sectors.
The CBOE Volatility Index, the most widely followedbarometer of expected near-term volatility in the S&P, was up2.70 points at 20.56, near its session lows after hitting athree-week high of 22.70 earlier in the session.
The drop in yields weighed on financial stocks,which were down 2.43 percent.
Facebook shares, down 1.4 percent, continued to weigh on thebroader market and the tech sector, the best performing S&Pgroup for this year. The S&P technology index fell1.51 percent on fears of greater regulation in the wake of theFacebook data leak.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he was open toadditional government regulation and happy to testify before the
AbbVie tumbled 12.1 percent after the drugmakersaid it would not seek accelerated approval for its experimentallung cancer treatment based on results from a mid-stagestudy.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a2.53-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.56-to-1 ratio favored decliners.(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
