How the Sky High Stock Market Affects You

Courtesy: MGN, Billie Grace Ward / CC BY 2.0

Stocks plunged, sending the Dow Jones industrials down more than 700 points, as investors feared that trade tensions will spike between the U.S. and China.

The Trump administration announced trade sanctions against China Thursday, and Beijing has said it will defend itself.

Industrial and technology companies, which depend heavily on foreign trade, took some of the worst losses.

Boeing, Caterpillar and Microsoft all fell sharply.

Bond prices surged as investors sought cover, sending yields lower.

High-dividend stocks like utilities, another safe-play investment, rose.

The European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea are among the nations that will get an initial exemption from looming steel and aluminum tariffs from the Trump administration, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

Lighthizer told the Senate Finance Committee that there are countries involved in various stages of trade talks with the U.S., and that Trump decided "to pause" the tariffs for those countries.

(The Associated Press, CBS News contributed to this report.)