Investing.com - Stocks on Wall Street ended lower as another tumble in oil prices weighed on energy stocks.
The Dow fell 0.73%, while the broader S&P 500 index lost 0.66%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 0.48%.
Crude oil prices fell more than 6% as concerns persisted about a supply glut. Dow components Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) fell 2.7% and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) slumped 3.3%.
The energy sector has lost 16.5% since the beginning of October, making it the worst performing S&P sector during the period and putting it on pace for its biggest two-month drop since September 2011.
"If we get clarity on any of these - oil prices, trade war with China and the Federal Reserve's rate of monetary policy tightening - we could go a long way towards making investors comfortable in investing in the market," said Neil Massa, senior equity trader at Manulife Asset Management in Boston.
Meanwhile, retail stocks were in focus with Black Friday sales underway. Discounts will continue through to Cyber Monday as investors will look to see if the companies can overcome an underwhelming retail earnings season.
Walmart (NYSE:WMT) was up more than 1%, but Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) dropped 1%.
-- Reuters contributed to this report