FILE: New York City, USA - Feb 6, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) trading floor, traders at work

New York City, USA - March 22, 2018 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Screen showing Dow index changes

FILE: New York City, USA - Feb 2018 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of NYSE building facade

FILE: New York City, USA - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Various of Nasdaq building at Times Square, pedestrians

FILE: Beijing, China - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Various of U.S. dollars going through counting machine

FILE: Washington D.C., USA - Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
White House
6. U.S. national flag fluttering

Washington D.C., USA - March 8, 2018 (Agencia EFE - No access Chinese mainland/Spain/Latin America/No archive)
7. U.S. President Donald Trump signing proclamation to impose import tariffs on steel, aluminum

FILE: China - Exact Date and Location Unknown (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Various of steel-making process, workers
9. Various of steel rolls in factory
10. Various of port scenes

U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday, with the Dow plunging over 700 points, after U.S. President Donald Trump announced to impose tariffs on imported products from China.

At the close, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 724.42 points, or 2.93 percent, to 23,957.89, marking the record low closing price since the Feb 8 steep sell-off. Meanwhile, the broader Standard and Poor's 500 lost 68.24 points, or 2.52 percent, to 2,643.69, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was down 178.61 points, or 2.43 percent, to 7,166.68, both suffering the biggest one-day loss since Feb 8.

The "fear index" Cboe Volatility index (VIX), a popular gauge of Wall Street's expectation of volatility, rallied 30.68 percent to 23.34 in Thursday's late trading.

Shares with a direct relationship with trade war led the declines, with Boeing sliding 5.19 percent to drag the Dow down heavily, as investors worried about massive Chinese orders would be replaced by European competitors amid the U.S.-China trade war.

Shares of steel and aluminum companies also tumbled heavily, due to worries about a possible oversupply in the market, with U.S. Steel and Century Aluminum leading the downward trend by plunging 10.99 percent and 17.84 percent respectively.

Shares of the financial sector were also among the hardest hit, dropping 3.70 percent on the day, as the declining treasury yields, which is a result of cash inflow into the safe-haven bond market, put pressure on the financial companies' future growth prospects.

Meanwhile, U.S.-listed Chinese companies also traded sharply lower on Thursday, with all the top 10 stocks by weight in the S and P U.S.-Listed China 50 index ending the day with big losses. Shares of Sina, shares of Alibaba, and shares of JD.com, three Chinese famous tech companies listed in the U.S. equity market, slumped 6.78 percent, 5.45 percent, and 2.30 percent respectively on the day, leading the decreases among the top 10 stocks of the index.

Despite strong warnings from business groups and trade experts, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that could impose tariffs on up to 60 billion U.S. dollars of imports from China, the latest unilateral move that poses a threat to global trade.

Analysts said Trump's protectionism made investors nervous and history had showed that such trade policies could harm the economy.