Stocks end worst week in 4 years

A wave of late selling pummeled U.S. stocks Friday and pushed the market to its worst week in four years.

The dismal start to the year comes as investors worry that China’s huge economy is slowing. That has helped send the price of oil plunging to its lowest level since 2004, the latest blow to U.S. energy companies.

Industrial and technology companies such as Boeing and Apple that do a lot of business in China also have fallen sharply this week. And mining companies such as Freeport-McMoRan plunged as copper prices fell. China is a major importer of copper.

Stocks started the day higher, driven in part by news of an encouraging burst in hiring last month by U.S. employers. China’s stock market rose 2%, recovering somewhat after steep drops earlier in the week triggered trading halts.

U.S. indexes took a decisive turn lower in the last hour of trading. That made this the worst week since September 2011, when the market was roiled by the fight over the U.S. debt ceiling and Standard & Poor’s move to cut the credit rating of the federal government.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 167.65 points, or 1%, to 16,346.45. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 21.06 points, or 1.1%, to 1,922.03. The Nasdaq composite index sank 45.80 points, or 1%, to 4,643.63.

The Dow and S&P 500 are each down about 6% for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell even more, 7.3%.

Financial stocks suffered Friday’s largest losses. JPMorgan Chase slid $1.35, or 2.2%, to $58.92, and Citigroup fell $1.43, or 3%, to $46.13. Healthcare stocks slumped, led by drug companies. Energy stocks also skidded as the price of oil, already at decade lows, continued to fall.Oil prices also lost ground. U.S. crude fell 11 cents to close at $33.16 a barrel in New York, and Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, declined 20 cents to $33.55 a barrel in London.

Exxon Mobil sank $1.54, or 2%, to $74.69, and Tesoro fell $5.41, or 5%, to $101.62.Department stores were among the biggest losers on the S&P 500. Their holiday sales were hurt by the unusually warm winter weather. Kohl’s fell $2.98, or 5.9%, to $47.88, and Macy’s slid $1, or 2.7%, to $35.89.

The Container Store reported a surprise thirdquarter loss and disappointing sales, and its stock plunged $2.96, or 41.2%, to $4.22. The company went public in November 2013 with an initial public offering that priced it at $18 per share, and it finished its first trading day at $36.20.

The price of gold fell $9.90, or 0.9%, to $1,097.90 an ounce. Silver declined 42.6 cents, or 3%, to $13.918 an ounce. Copper was unchanged at $2.022 a pound.

The euro fell to $1.0903 from $1.0927, and the dollar edged up to 117.67 yen from 117.50 yen late Thursday.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down to 2.12% from 2.15%.