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Wall Street indexes all lost >1%, S&P 500 confirms

correction

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Trump's back and forth on tariffs weighs on sentiment

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US dollar down vs yen but up against euro, Swiss franc

By Sinéad Carew and Harry Robertson

NEW YORK/LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - Global equities

sank on Thursday with the S&P 500 confirming it was in a

correction while U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors fled for

safer assets as they worried that global trade tensions would

boost inflation and slow growth after U.S. President Donald

Trump's latest tariff threats.

On Thursday, for the first time, the benchmark S&P 500

finished more than 10% below its most recent record high

close, achieved on February 19.

In the latest in a long list of tariff threats, Trump said

he would hit European beverage imports with duties of 200% if

the EU does not remove U.S. whiskey surcharges. This was after

his increased tariffs on all U.S. steel and aluminium imports

took effect on Wednesday.

Thursday's Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics

data showed U.S. producer prices (PPI) were unexpectedly

unchanged in February and Wednesday's data showed consumer

prices (CPI) rising more slowly than expected.

But last month's trends did little to reassure investors who

were bracing for the impact of trade wars on future inflation

and growth.

"If it wasn't for the trade war going on, the market would

be up strongly" on the inflation data, said Tim Ghriskey, senior

portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "Traders

are focused on the trade war."

"It seems like the (U.S.) administration is being very

aggressive and promises at least at this point to be in it for

the longer term and the personalities look unlikely to back down

at least in the near term," said Ghriskey.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 77.78 points, or

1.39%, to 5,521.52.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was also nearing a

correction confirmation, ending down 537.36 points, or 1.30%, at

40,813.57 on Thursday, roughly 9.4% below its most recent record

closing high.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 345.44 points, or 1.96%,

to 17,303.01. The tech-heavy index was down more than 14% from

its recent record after confirming a correction on March 6.

Stock market corrections are fairly common, with the S&P 500

logging a correction 56 times since 1929, according to a Reuters

analysis of data from Yardeni Research. Of these, only 22

morphed into bear markets, defined as a fall of 20% or more from

most recent record highs, the data showed.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell

9.33 points, or 1.12%, to 821.52 on Thursday, putting it more

than 7% below its most recent record high after earlier hitting

his lowest level since September.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index earlier closed

down 0.15% after rising 0.81% in the previous day's session.

While the U.S. S&P 500 index is now down more than 6% for

the year-to-date, European stocks have been faring better with

support from government spending plans for defence and a

potential Ukraine peace deal. Year-to-date the STOXX index is up

6.5% year to date, despite slipping in recent weeks.

U.S. Treasury yields fell on Thursday as the equities

selloff boosted demand for safe haven U.S. government debt with

escalating trade wars between the United States and trading

partners threatening to dent growth and boost inflation.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell

4.6 basis points to 4.27%, from 4.316% late on Wednesday while

the 30-year bond yield fell 4.1 basis points to

4.59%.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves

in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve,

fell 4 basis points to 3.955%, from 3.995% late on Wednesday.

In currencies, the U.S. dollar was a mixed bag, weakening

against Japan's safe haven yen but gaining on the euro and the

Canadian dollar.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.38%

to 147.68.

But the euro was down 0.33% at $1.085 while the

Canadian dollar weakened 0.45% versus the greenback and

against the Swiss franc, the dollar strengthened 0.14%.

After rallying on Wednesday on a larger-than-expected draw

in U.S. gasoline stocks, oil prices tumbled as traders weighed

macroeconomic concerns and demand versus supply expectations.

U.S. crude settled down 1.67%, or $1.13 at $66.55 a

barrel and Brent settled at $69.88 per barrel, down

1.51% or $1.07 on the day.

Gold prices raced to a record high within touching distance

of the key milestone of $3,000 per ounce on Thursday, with

momentum driven by elevated tariff uncertainty and bets on

monetary policy easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Spot gold rose 1.73% to $2,982.84 an ounce. U.S. gold

futures rose 1.51% to $2,983.50 an ounce.