NEW YORK, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) - US stocks dropped on Wednesday, dragged down by a steep sell-off in major tech names.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 105.07 points, or 0.35 percent, to 30,068.81. The S&P 500 fell 29.43 points, or 0.79 percent, to 3,672.82. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 243.82 points, or 1.94 percent, to 12,338.95.

(File photo: CFP)

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors pulled back, with technology and communication services closing down 1.88 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, leading the laggards.

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

Wall Street weighed the prospects of additional U.S. COVID-19 aid package.

The White House on Tuesday proposed a new 916-billion-U.S.-dollar COVID-19 relief package to Congress as the U.S. economy faces the risk of a double-dip recession amid the pandemic.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been negotiating a new COVID-19 relief package for months, but failed to reach an agreement before the presidential election in November.

The new proposal made by the White House marked the Trump administration's first move since Election Day to break the months-long standoff in relief talks.

Without a new relief package, many Americans will soon lose their unemployment benefits and begin to face hardships like eviction and foreclosure by the end of the year.

The United States has added 1 million new COVID-19 infections in just five days, bringing the nation's total confirmed cases to over 15 million on Tuesday.

The U.S. caseload has surpassed 15.3 million with the death toll exceeding 288,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.