NEW YORK, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply in intraday trading on Monday with the Dow erasing more than 500 points at its low as market sell-off continued after steep losses in the previous week.

At midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 407.19 points, or 1.67 percent, to 23,981.76. The S&P 500 was down 35.82 points, or 1.36 percent, to 2,597.26. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 45.89 points, or 0.66 percent, to 6,923.36.

All of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors traded lower, with energy and financials down 3.19 percent and 2.70 percent, respectively, underperforming the rest.

A pullback in major financial shares led the slide of the broader market. Shares of JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley all fell at least 3 percent around midday.

"It is a continued sell-off of profitable assets as we get near the end of the calendar year. Traders do not seem to want to buy stocks yet. But they can begin to buy at any point of the day. Everything seems to be very news sensitive at the moment," John Monaco, a trader at Wellington Shields & Co. LLC, told Xinhua.

U.S. stocks suffered sharp losses in the week ending Dec. 7 as fears of a possible economic slowdown rattled investors.

For the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 4.5 percent, the S&P 500 erased 4.6 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 4.9 percent. Enditem

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