US equity indexes plunged in late Monday afternoon trade as markets grew increasingly concerned about the economic impact of tariffs.

The Nasdaq Composite sank 4.9% to 17,304.1, while the S&P 500 slumped 3.5% to 5,567.9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.7% at 41,651.8.

Technology led the decliners among sectors, while energy was the sole gainer.

The so-called Magnificent-7 group of stocks, which comprises Tesla (TSLA), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA) all traded lower. Tesla plunged 14% intraday.

Goldman Sachs lowered its fourth-quarter US annualized GDP forecast to 1.7% from a prior expectation of 2.2%. The brokerage's 12-month recession probability moved up to 20% from 15%. It was not increased more than that because the White House "has the option to pull back policy changes if downside risks begin to look more serious," Goldman wrote.

"We now expect larger tariffs than before, including further product-specific tariffs and a reciprocal tariff that goes beyond simple tariff differentials," Goldman Sachs wrote. "Larger tariffs are also likely to hit GDP harder."

President Donald Trump would not rule out that the US economy could enter a recession in 2025, telling Fox News in an interview over the weekend that there will be a "period of transition" as his administration slashes imposes tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

In other economic news, median inflation expectations increased by 0.1 percentage point at the one-year horizon to 3.1% in February, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They were unchanged at the three-year and five-year horizons at 3%.

US Treasury yields dropped, with the 10-year diving 9.5 basis points to 4.22% and the two-year rate falling 9.8 basis points to 3.9%.

In company news, Veren (VRN) and Whitecap Resources agreed to merge in an all-share transaction worth roughly 15 billion Canadian dollars ($10.39 billion) that will create the largest Canadian light oil-focused producer. Oil producer Veren's New York Stock Exchange-listed shares were up 15% intraday Monday.

BioNTech (BNTX) reported a decline in fourth-quarter revenue and projected full-year sales to fall again in 2025, while the German drugmaker announced plans to ramp up research and development efforts for future oncology product launches. BioNTech's American depositary receipts fell 3.2% in Monday trade.

Quarterly results for Oracle (ORCL) are due after the market closes.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures retreated 1.6% to $65.97 a barrel in late-afternoon trade.

Gold futures fell 0.7% to $2,892.6 per troy ounce, while silver fell 1.3% to $32.38 per troy ounce.