CATCo Share News (CAT)

* Trump plans tariffs on $60 bln worth of China imports

* Industrial stocks weak

* Financial stocks fall with decline in Treasury yields

* Dow down 2.93 pct, S&P 500 down 2.52 pct, Nasdaq down 2.43pct(Updates to market close)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, March 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slumped onThursday as President Donald Trump's move to impose tariffs onup to $60 billion of Chinese imports drove fears about theimpact on the global economy, fueling the biggest percentagedeclines in Wall Street's three major indexes since they enteredcorrection territory six weeks ago.

Trump signed a presidential memorandum that will target theChinese imports only after a consultation period. China willhave space to respond, reducing the risk of immediateretaliation from Beijing.

But after equities recovered somewhat from earlier lows,selling pressure resumed on Wall Street heading into the closeas investors fretted over the potential scale of U.S tariffs andpossible impact on global trade.

"There’s too much negative sentiment right now," said JohnCarey, portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management inBoston. "It's possible that it will be rough sledding for awhile. I don’t see anything on the horizon that will reassurepeople that things are just great."

Major industrials slumped. Plane maker Boeing Co lost5.2 percent, Caterpillar Inc dropped 5.7 and 3M Colost 4.7. The three were among the biggest drags on theDow Jones Industrial Average. The S&P industrials sectorplunged 3.28 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 724.42 points,or 2.93 percent, to 23,957.89, the S&P 500 lost 68.24points, or 2.52 percent, to 2,643.69, and the Nasdaq Compositedropped 178.61 points, or 2.43 percent, to 7,166.68.

The losses marked the biggest daily percentage drop for eachof the major indexes since Feb. 8, when the Dow and S&Pconfirmed a market correction from their Jan. 26 highs.

Selling was broad, with only the defensive utilities0.44on the plus side, up 0.44 percent, out of 11 majorS&P sectors.

The CBOE Volatility Index, the most widely followedbarometer of expected near-term volatility in the S&P 500,finished up 5.48 points at 23.34, its highest close since Feb.13.23.34

U.S. treasury prices gained as investors sought out safehavens. Benchmark 10-year notes last rose 23/32 inprice to yield 2.8244 percent, from 2.907 percent late onWednesday.

The drop in yields weighed on financial stocks,which were down 3.70 percent, making them the worst performingof the major sectors.

Another decline in shares of Facebook Inc, down 2.7percent, continued to weigh on the broader market and the techsector, the best performing S&P group for this year. The S&Ptechnology index fell 2.69 percent on fears of greaterregulation in the wake of the Facebook data leak.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he was open toadditional government regulation and happy to testify before theU.S. Congress.

AbbVie Inc tumbled 12.8 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 a4.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.09-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 19 new lows;the Nasdaq Composite recorded 36 new highs and 59 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.77 billion shares, comparedto the 7.17 billion average for the full session over the last20 trading days.(Additional reporting by April Joyner; Editing by Leslie Adler)