US STOCKS-Trade tensions slam Wall Street as global growth worries mount

* Energy stocks mirror slump in oil prices
* Utilities, real estate only S&P 500 sectors with gains
* L Brands jumps after quarterly earnings beat
* Indexes fall: Dow 1.11%, S&P 1.19%, Nasdaq 1.58%

(Updates to market close)
By April Joyner
NEW YORK, May 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks slumped on Thursday
as investors dumped shares of companies in growth and cyclical
sectors, with energy and technology leading declines, on fears
that the escalating U.S.-China trade war would stymie global
economic growth.
Further fueling trade fears among investors, Beijing said
that Washington needs to correct its "wrong actions" for trade
talks to continue after the United States blacklisted Huawei
Technology Co Ltd HWT.UL last week. Among S&P 500 sectors, only utilities .SPLRCU and real
estate .SPLRCR , both considered defensive areas, registered
gains as investors moved to safe-haven assets such as
Treasuries. Stocks pared losses in the last hour of trading, but
Wall Street's major indexes all ended more than 1% lower.
"It looks less and less like there will be a near-term
resolution to the trade war, and the market is obviously spooked
on that," said Lamar Villere, partner and portfolio manager at
Villere & Co in New Orleans.
Shares of S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT and industrial
.SPLRCI companies, two sectors that have been bellwethers of
trade sentiment, fell 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively. Shares of S&P
500 companies in the cyclical financial .SPSY and energy
.SPNY sectors also tumbled, with the 3.1% drop in energy
shares leading losses among S&P 500 sectors.
A 5% plunge in oil prices in response to a dampened outlook
for demand impeded energy shares while a drop in
10-year Treasury yields, which hit their lowest level since
October 2017, held back financial shares. Adding to the downbeat mood in markets, data from IHS Markit
showed U.S. manufacturing faltered in May, with new orders
falling for the first time since August 2009. "We're going to see a drift lower until there's a resolution
of what's happening with China," said Jamie Cox, managing
partner at Harris Financial Group in Richmond, Virginia. "If
you're trading, it's not a bad idea to put yourself on the
sidelines and sit it out."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 286.14 points,
or 1.11%, to 25,490.47, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 34.03 points, or
1.19%, to 2,822.24 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
122.56 points, or 1.58%, to 7,628.28.
Stocks succumbed to selling pressure in May after Washington
and Beijing engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs and other retaliatory
measures, with the S&P 500 on track to post its first monthly
decline since the December sell-off.
Shares of NetApp Inc NTAP.O tumbled 8.1%, the biggest
percentage drop on the S&P 500, after the data storage equipment
maker forecast current-quarter profit and revenue below Wall
Street estimates. L Brands Inc LB.N shares jumped 12.8% after the owner of
Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works reported
better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
3.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.84-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 28 new 52-week highs and 27 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 22 new highs and 189 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 7.61 billion shares, compared
to the 6.99 billion-share average for the full session over the
last 20 trading days.