* BHP served class action lawsuit over Samarco dam failure
* Gold stocks extend losses for 7th straight session (Updates to close)
By Nikhil Nainan
July 23 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all Chinese imports put global riskier assets on the skids.
The S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO declined 0.9 percent, or 58.3 points, to 6,227.6 at the close of trade. The benchmark gained 0.4 percent on Friday.
Trump said on Friday he was ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of imported goods from China, as a trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies shows no signs of abating. Conway, head of research and trading at Australian Stock Report said that the market has been on a good run of late, "so it is not surprising that when we see some negative leads and sentiment from offshore that our entire market pulls backward a little bit."
Global miner BHP BHP.AX suffered a 1.4 percent loss after it confirmed that it had been served with a class action lawsuit regarding the 2015 Samarco dam failure in Brazil. Last week, BHP said it expected a $650 million charge in its fiscal 2018 results on account of the failure. Aussie mining index .AXMM fell 0.9 percent, as commodity prices remained pressured by global trade tensions.
Financials were the biggest drag, with the main financial index .AXFJ and Westpac Banking WBC.AX down 0.9 percent each.
The bank had earlier announced that its wealth management unit, BT Financial Group, cut prices of its flagship platform at a time when its peers have retreated from their wealth businesses. stocks retreated from morning gains as an uptick in gold prices paused near their highest since July 17.
The yellow metal's earlier gains, supported by an easing dollar following Trump's criticism of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, lifted the gold index .AXGD over half a percent.
But it receded 0.3 percent by the close for its seventh straight session of losses, with Newcrest Mining NCM.AX down 0.7 percent.
a2 Milk company ATM.NZ was the biggest drag on the New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index .NZ50 , which fell 82.98 points to finish at 8,872.56.
After closing flat on Friday following four straight sessions of losses, a2 Milk slipped into the red again, down 2.8 percent at a near two-month low.