U.S. Stocks Plunge in Global Rout; Dow, S&P 500 Erase '07 Gains (Eric Martin)

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``This is a fairly violent selloff,'' said Russ Koesterich, a portfolio manager at Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco, which has $1.7 trillion in assets.

By Eric Martin

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks plunged, wiping out about $600 billion in market value and erasing all of the year's gains, after a selloff in China spread globally and sparked the biggest rout since the bull market began in 2002.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 546 points, the most since the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It dropped 151 points in a single minute at about 3 p.m. New York time. All but two companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined.

``This is a fairly violent selloff,'' said Russ Koesterich, a portfolio manager at Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco, which has $1.7 trillion in assets.

The worldwide tumble was sparked by China's plan to clamp down on illegal stock market investments. Chinese stocks slumped the most in a decade, while Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index fell 3 percent and emerging markets sank. Russian shares slid from an all-time high; Brazil's Bovespa Index sank 6.6 percent.

U.S. Treasuries rose on increased demand for debt securities amid the worldwide equity slump and signs of a slowing economy after durable-goods orders fell more than forecast in January.