Wall Street's main indexes fell sharply on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbling more than 500 points, as China's willingness to let the yuan slide in response to the latest U.S. tariff threat fanned fears that it could further aggravate an ongoing trade war.

The yuan breached the key 7-per-dollar level for the first time in more than a decade, and President Donald Trump slammed it as "major violation", sending investors scurrying for the safety of assets such as government bonds, gold and the Japanese yen.

Trump stunned financial markets last week by threatening to impose 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of Chinese imports, abruptly abandoning a brief ceasefire.

At 11:02 a.m. ET, the Dow was down 546.37 points, or 2.06%, at 25,938.64, the S&P 500 was down 62.14 points, or 2.12%, at 2,869.91. The Nasdaq Composite was down 221.50 points, or 2.77%, at 7,782.57.

Source : Reuters