GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks fall; White House says report of pause in tariffs inaccurate

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK April 7 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes were down but off the lows of the day in choppy trading on Monday as the White House denied a report that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a 90-day pause in tariffs for all countries except China. The U.S. dollar was higher.

Wall Street indexes started the day sharply lower but reversed course after a report that White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said in an interview that Trump was considering the 90-day tariff pause.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 469.46 points, or 1.23%, to 37,845.40, the S&P 500 .SPX fell 28.89 points, or 0.54%, to 5,046.66 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC fell 3.62 points, or 0.02%, to 15,584.16.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 12.42 points, or 1.63%, to 751.87. The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index fell 2.58%.

Earlier the S&P 500 had been on pace to confirm a bear market amid concern Trump was showing no sign of backing away from his sweeping tariff plans.

Traders bet the increasing risk of recession could result in the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates as early as May. Futures markets moved to price in almost five quarter-point cuts in U.S. rates this year.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.72% to 103.34, with the euro EUR= down 0.36% at $1.0919.

Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar strengthened 0.48% to 147.64.

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