Investing.com -- U.S. stocks closed broadly lower on Friday, capping their worst weekly start to a year in a quarter-century with a disappointing final hour.
Following a week of precipitous losses, the major indices appeared poised to bounce on Friday morning, as stocks in China rallied by 2% in overnight trading. It came as the People's Bank of China increased the midpoint on the yuan and the Shanghai Composite Index scraped a circuit breaker that halted trading twice this week. China has been the main culprit for a global equity rout this week, which has created approximately $2.5 trillion in losses on worldwide market and has led to mounting fears of slowing economic growth.
Investors also digested strong job gains last month when the U.S. Department of Labor reported an increase of 292,000 in nonfarm payrolls in December, significantly above expectations for a consensus gain of 200,000. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 120 points before paring the gains soon after, on a roller-coaster day of trading.
But even the robust figures were not enough to prop up the markets, as the Dow closed at 16,346.45, down 167.65 or 1.02%, marking its worst week to open a year on record. The NASDAQ Composite index also suffered sharp losses in the final hour to close at 4,643.63, down 45.80 or 0.98% on the session. The last-minute selling pressure may have been fueled by speculation that the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates before the end of the spring, a move that is widely viewed as bearish for stocks.
The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, dropped by 21.06 or 1.08% to 1,922.03, as nine of 10 sectors closed in the red. Stocks in the Financials, Health Care and Energy industries lagged, each falling more than 1%. For the week, the major financials stocks plunged approximately 9%.
The top performer on the Dow was Apple Inc (O:AAPL) which added 0.51 or 0.53% to 96.96. Apple (O:AAPL), the world's largest company, rebounded from a rough week where it dipped under $100 following reports that it could be forced to scale back production on its iPhone 6S during the quarter. The worst performer was Cisco Systems Inc (O:CSCO), which fell more than 2.4% to 24.78, extending declines from Thursday's session when the networking equipment manufacturer also suffered severe losses.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Viacom Inc (O:VIA), which surged 2.09 or 5.37% to 40.98 after a report surfaced from Reuters that the media conglomerate will hold a vote in March on whether to extend voting rights to all shareholders. The worst performer was Seagate Technology (O:STX), which fell 2.00 or 5.79% to 32.54, after receiving a downgrade by analysts at Zack's Investment Research.
The top performer on the S&P 500 was Range Resources Corporation (N:RRC), which added 1.65 or 6.85% to 25.75, amid heavy profit taking. Previously, shares in the Fort Worth, Texas-based oil and gas exploration company had fallen by more than 45% over the last six months as crude prices hover near 12-year lows. The worst performer was Gap Inc (N:GPS), which fell as much as 15% on Friday to 22.91, after reporting disappointing same-store sales for the holiday period on Thursday night.
On the New York Stock Exchange, declining issues outnumbered advancing issues by a 2,097 to 973 margin.