Dow drops over 500 points as financials, energy lead losses

NEW YORK, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks dropped on Friday, dragged down by heavy selling in the financials and the energy sectors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 532.20 points, or 1.48 percent, to 35,365.44. The S&P 500 fell 48.03 points, or 1.03 percent, to 4,620.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 10.75 points, or 0.07 percent, to 15,169.68.

All the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with financials and energy down 2.27 percent and 2.24 percent, respectively, leading the losses.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower with six of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

The above market reactions came as investors grew concerned over surging cases of the Omicron variant and a more hawkish Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced that it would trim its asset buying program by 30 billion dollars a month to end its bond buying in March 2022, sooner than previously planned.

The U.S. central bank also indicated it would raise interest rates more aggressively to combat high U.S. inflation.

For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 dropped 1.7 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled nearly 3 percent.