1st LD Writethru: Nasdaq tanks over 4 pct amid wide sell-off

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The tech-heavy Nasdaq Index lost as much as 4.9 percent around noon on Monday at the height of sell-off in U.S. stock markets.

Deep losses in European stock markets and worse-than-expected economic indicators worsened market sentiment.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to hold its monetary policy meeting from Tuesday to Wednesday with wide expectation of hawkish signals.