NEW YORK, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks posted sharp weekly loss during as concerns for U.S. economic environment and companies' ability to sustain double-digit profit growth spurred market sell-off, registering the worst Thanksgiving week since 2011.
For the week, the Dow tumbled 4.4 percent, the S&P 500 erased 3.8 percent, while the Nasdaq plunged 4.3 percent.
On Tuesday, all three major indices were down more than 1.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 turned negative for the year while the Nasdaq dropped below 7,000-mark and fell into correction territory.
Tech sector was one of the hardest-hit on Tuesday. The popular "FAANG" stocks -- Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet -- lost nearly 1 trillion U.S. dollars in combined market cap after descending more than 20 percent from their 52-week highs.
The Dow component Apple was the biggest contributor to the decline of the benchmark. Its stock price erased 4.78 percent on Tuesday. On Monday, shares of the company dropped nearly 4 percent after reports said the company cut production of orders for the new iPhones that came out earlier this year.
"Apple is good headline to raise concerns. But there is more (to the market sell-off)," said Matthew Cheslock, a trader at Virtu Americas LLC.
The fact that the market has not seen a fast rebound especially on the tech sector showed investors were concerned about growth trajectory of the companies next year.
"Maybe we should reevaluate our expectations for next year. It's really unsustainable to think that a company can earn 20 or 30 percent quarter over quarter over quarter," said Cheslock.
On the economic front, the consumer sentiment index hit 97.5 in November, according to the University of Michigan's monthly survey of consumers. The figure was lower than economist estimate of 98.3 and was also down from October's 98.6.
U.S. weekly jobless claims rose to a more than four-month high. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 224,000 for the week ending Nov. 17, the highest level since the end of June, said the Labor Department on Wednesday.
U.S. building permits fell 0.6 percent to a rate of 1.263 million units in October. Housing starts increased 1.5 percent in October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.23 million units but is 2.9 percent below the rate registered in the same period last year.
The continued housing weakness and expectation for one more interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year triggered fears over the durability of the economy's strength.
JP Morgan economists expect economic growth to slow down in 2019, to a pace of 1.9 percent for the year, according to media reports on Tuesday.
The economists said the slow down will come as fiscal, monetary and trade policy get less supportive or more restrictive.
Meanwhile, oil prices fell on Friday to their lowest levels in more than a year, deepening a rapid seven-week sell-off that has plunged crude futures deep into a bear market.
The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery slumped 4.21 dollars to settle at 50.42 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery plunged 3.8 dollars to close at 58.8 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.
The oil price decline also put pressure on the equities.
