S&P 500 caps worst week in two years amid rout in tech sector

new york » The Standard & Poor’s 500 index posted the biggest weekly drop in two years as concern about chipmaker earnings fueled a rout across the technology industry.

TheDowJones industrial average erased gains for the year as Intel, Microsoft and Cisco Systems fell more than 3.5 percent. Microchip Technology tumbled 12 percent and said quarterly revenuewas crimped by a decline in China sales. Juniper Networks sank 9.1 percent after reporting preliminary results that missed its own forecast.

The S&P 500 on Friday lost 1.1 percent to 1,906.13. The index fell 3.1 percent for the week, the biggest drop sinceMay 2012. The Nasdaq composite index sank 2.3 percent on Friday. The Dow average lost 115.15 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,544.10.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” said Mark Freeman, who oversees $20.1 billion as chief investment officer at WestwoodHoldingsGroup. “It’s really about investors’ degree of confidence on growth outside of theU.S., and that’swhat has been called into question.”

The Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index jumped above 20 for the first time since February, surging 46 percent for the week. The S&P 500 has moved more than 1 percent for the past four days.

About 9.2 billion shares changed hands onU.S. exchanges, the most in threeweeks, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. For the week, the average was 7.9 billion, the most since 2011.

Global equities have lost $3.5 trillion in value since reaching a record last month.