Last checked at 
* Dow down 0.7 percent, S&P 500 0.4 percent
* Protectionist Navarro says he won't be new Trump econchief
* Industrials main sufferers on fears of global squeeze(Changes comment, adds details, updates prices)
By Sruthi Shankar and Sinéad Carew
March 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell onWednesday as investors worried the exit of staunch free tradesupporter Gary Cohn from the White House made the imposition ofhefty steel and aluminium tariffs and eruption of a global tradewar more likely.
The Dow fell as much as 1 percent at opening before trimmingsome of those losses as markets again debated how serious DonaldTrump was about a protectionist shift that economists say coulddamage growth worldwide.
Playing in to that recovery was a Bloomberg interview inwhich White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who favoursstrong tariffs, said he was not a candidate to replace Cohn asTrump's chief economic adviser.
"The market's gone up on that," said Joe Saluzzi, co-managerof trading at Themis Trading in
"The market sees him (Navarro) as a very protectionist type.If he's not in the running the market seems to like that."
At 11:29 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Averagewas down 175.23 points, or 0.7 percent, at 24,708.89, the S&P500 was down 13.03 points, or 0.48 percent, at 2,715.09and the Nasdaq Composite was down 16.65 points, or 0.23percent, at 7,355.35.
Worries over the threat to global trade that
Trump showed no sign of backing down in his first tweet onWednesday, while
Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters the White House wason track to announce tariffs by the end of this week.
"With Cohn's departure you'll think it's going to make it alittle bit easier for Trump to push it through," said LindseyBell, an investment strategist at CFRA Research.
"It is a one-day knee jerk reaction because somebody verycapable is going to replace Cohn."
Cohn, the architect of a tax overhaul passed in December,was seen as a stabilizing force within the Trump administration.His departure is seen strengthening the hands of thoseadvocating a protectionist agenda.
The losses were broad-based, but shares of manufacturingtitans Boeing and Caterpillar were hit hard,slipping about 1 percent on worries about higher input costs andtrade barriers outside
General Electric dipped 1.54 percent after DeutscheBank analysts warned of the potential impact from Trump'splanned tariffs on steel and aluminum.(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by SrirajKalluvila)
