* Oil prices tumble to 12-year lows
* U.S. indexes drop, give up earlier gains
* Pan-European index edges down
* China stocks tumble 5 pct (Updates with afternoon trading)
By Lewis Krauskopf
NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street and European stock markets fell on Monday, worsening a brutal start to 2016, as a plunge in beaten-down oil prices and a fresh tumble for Chinese shares gave investors more reasons to sell.
After rising in morning trading, the major U.S. indexes reversed course and were set for another down day after the S&P 500 and the Dow last week posted their worst five-day start to the year in history.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 also gave up initial gains and ended down 0.4 percent.
Fears over China's economy contributed to last week's declines, and China's main stock indexes .SSEC .CSI300 each dropped more than 5 percent on Monday. Oil prices fell to new 12-year lows, as concerns over China hurt commodity prices broadly.
"The market has been looking for reasons to be negative and China and oil are two of the most convenient reasons today," said Michael Holland, chairman of investment company Holland & Co in New York. "That's what happens in market cycles ... right now we people simply have searching for reasons to be negative."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 20.61 points, or 0.13 percent, at 16,325.84, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 7.92 points, or 0.41 percent, at 1,914.11 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC fell 31.13 points, or 0.67 percent, at 4,612.50.
Energy shares .SPNY led declines, while the healthcare sector .SPXHC fell 2 percent, as Celgene Corp CELG.O weighed after posting disappointing financial outlook.
Investors were looking to U.S. corporate earnings to help provide confidence, with Alcoa (N:AA) AA.N posting results later on Monday and major banks reporting later this week, despite expectations for a second consecutive quarter of overall declining earnings. mentality has been pretty negative and I don't see that changing this morning or today until there is more meat on the bones from a data standpoint," said Michael James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles.
MSCI's broadest gauge of stocks globally .MIWD00000PUS slipped 0.7 percent, after registering its biggest weekly decline in more than four years.
Oil prices declined for a sixth straight session to start the new year, as traders cited fears over slowing demand in China. crude prices CLc1 settled down 5.3 percent to $31.41 a barrel, while benchmark Brent LCOc1 dropped 6 percent to $31.55 a barrel.
"The focus is still on China and the demand concerns in China moving forward into 2016," said Tony Headrick, an energy market analyst at CHS Hedging LLC.
Still, U.S. Treasury yields inched higher as concerns over global growth eased, leading traders to sell some safe-haven U.S. government debt.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR were down 8/32 in price to yield 2.1595 percent, from 2.131 percent late on Friday.
"Last week, Treasuries rallied because Chinese stocks fell and today Chinese stocks fell, but we didn't rally, suggesting the panic from last week seems to have subsided," said Ian Lyngen, senior government bond strategist at CRT Capital in Stamford, Connecticut.
The U.S. dollar .DXY was up 0.2 percent against a basket of currencies, while the euro fell 0.5 percent against the dollar. prices CMCU3 fell 2.3 percent to 6-1/2-year lows as the Chinese stock declines reinforced worries about demand in the world's biggest consumer of industrial metals. gold XAU= fell 0.7 percent but still hovered at more than two-month highs. 19-market Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity Index .TRJCRB sank 2.7 percent to a 13-1/2-year low.
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http://link.reuters.com/myh35w Currencies vs dollar
http://link.reuters.com/tak27s Oil prices
http://link.reuters.com/beb23v Commodities performance
http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
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