NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks tumbled on Monday as the U.S. trade war with China hotted up.

China announced it was imposing tariffs on U.S. goods imported from the Unietd States into China, in a direct retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trumps levying of $200 billion of new tariffs on Chinese goods on Friday.

China announced its move on Monday despite a tweet from Mr Trump on Sunday warning the country not to retaliate.

Wall Street, which had shown little reaction to the breakdown in negotiations, which the announcement by Mr Trump of the new tariffs signalled, came out of its state of denial on Monday, and sent the major indices hurtling.

While more significant losses were recorded during the day, the indices managed to regain some composure towards the close. The damage however was substantial.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day Monday with a 617.38 points or 2.38% loss at 25,324.99.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell sharply, losing 69.52 points or 2.41% to 2,811.88.

Tech stocks fared worst of all in percentage-terms, with the Nasdaq Composite shedding 269.92 points or 3.41% to 7,647.02.

The U.S. dollar rose as investors bought up the greenback as a safe haven investment in times of uncertainty. The British pound tumbled to 1.2960, after earlier hitting a low of 1.2941.

The Australian dollar dived to 0.6945. The Japanese yen however hardened to 109.31, as did the Swiss franc to 1.0064.

The euro too rose slightly to 1.1230, but finished well off its high of 1.1264.

The Canadian dollar wa sunchanged at 1.3470, while the New Zealand dollar weakened to 0.6570.

In overseas equity markets, London's FTSE 100 fell 0.55%. The German Dax dropped 1.52%, while in the Paris, the CAC 40 gave up 1.22%.

On Asian markets, the main stock exchange in China, the Shanghai Composite fell 1.21% on Monday. The key index dropped 35.50 points to finish at 2,903.71.

In Japan the Nikkei 225 slid 153.64 points or 0.72% to 21,191.28.

The Australian All Ordinaries slipped 11.80 points or 0.18% to 6,381.30.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng went against the trend, rising 239.14 points or 0.84% to 28,550.24.