BEIJING, March 5 -- U.S. stocks had their biggest weekly decline since January 2003 last Friday, erasing all of the year's gains, amid a global selloff spurred by concern that share prices have climbed too high during a four-year rally.

    Citigroup Inc and Bank of America Corp, the biggest U.S. financial-services companies, led the retreat after a drop in consumer confidence and rising mortgage defaults spurred concern that profit growth will be wiped out by a recession, Bloomberg News said.

    The week's decline ended a streak of eight monthly gains in U.S. stocks that had pushed the Standard & Poor's 500 Index to a six-year high and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a record. The rout erased about 837 billion U.S. dollars in market value.

    "The market is focusing on the bad news," said Alan Gayle, who helps oversee 70 billion dollars as senior investment strategist at Trusco Capital Management in Richmond, Virginia. "We've seen a complete reversal on the gains we've enjoyed. It has more than reset the clock."

    The S&P 500 dropped for a second week, falling 4.4 percent to 1387.17, with all 10 of its main industry groups declining. Only 19 of its members rose for the week. The index is down 2.2 percent for the year.

    The Dow average lost 4.2 percent to 12,114.10. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 5.9 percent to 2368.

    The Morgan Stanley Capital International AC World Index, which covers developed and emerging markets around the world, dropped 4.7 percent. That's the sharpest decline since September 2002, a month before the last bear market ended. The week's decline trimmed the index's advance since October 2002 to 111 percent.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)