By Joseph Adinolfi and Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

Nasdaq, S&P 500 post largest weekly drops in four

A rout in tech stocks--highlighted by LinkedIn Corp.'s massive drop after the business-oriented social network delivered a poor outlook--helped U.S. equities post their largest weekly drop in a month.

Adding to negative sentiment was a jobs report that showed weaker-than-forecast growth in January.

Though the the rate of U.S. jobs growth (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-jobs-growth-slows-to-151000-as-jobless-rate-hits-eight-year-low-2016-02-05) in January had a silver lining in the form of strong hourly wage growth and a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.9%, the weak headline number dealt a blow to growth-oriented plays like information technology and consumer-oriented shares.

The Nasdaq Composite was particularly hard-hit by declines in the so-called FANGs--Facebook Inc. (FB), Amazon Inc. (AMZN), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOGL) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX)--which are all heavily weighted constituents of the index.

Nasdaq dropped 146.41 points, or 3.3%, to close at 4,363.14. It posted a weekly drop of 5.4%, its largest in a month.

Read:LinkedIn loses more than a Twitter's worth of market cap (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/linkedin-loses-nearly-a-twitter-in-market-cap-2016-02-05)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 211.61 points, or 1.3%, to 16,204.97. The blue-chips weekly drop of 1.6% was the largest in three weeks.

The S&P 500 skidded 35.43 points, or 1.9%, to 1,880.02. Information technology shares led the index lower, followed by energy and consumer-discretionary stocks. The broad-market benchmark posted a weekly drop of 3.1%, also its largest in about a month.

A persistent decline in oil prices also weighed on stocks. The U.S. crude-oil benchmark settled 2.6% lower at $30.89 a barrel, stretching its weekly loss (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/crude-prices-steady-as-a-weak-dollar-lends-support-2016-02-05) to 8.1%.

Analysts and investors appeared to focus on the negative details of the labor report, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank.

The report "didn't do anything to put people who are worried about a recession at ease," said Mike Antonelli, equity sales trader at R.W Baird & Co.

"If your jobs numbers start slipping on top of all the industrial and manufacturing numbers, then all the pieces are coming together," he said.

Read: Why a January jobs slowdown may not be a bad sign (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-january-jobs-slowdown-may-not-be-a-bad-sign-2016-02-04)

U.S. stocks managed to eke out a small gain on Thursday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-futures-point-to-further-gains-as-oil-rallies-2016-02-04), after tracking fluctuations in crude-oil prices throughout much of the day. The S&P 500 index closed up 0.2%, while the Dow added 0.5%.

Movers and shakers: Shares of LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) plunged more than 43% after the social-networking company late Thursday forecast slower growth for the year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hunters-farmers-linkedin-earnings-confuse-investors-into-a-panic-2016-02-04). The company registered its largest decline ever and lost more than $10 billion in market capitalization, the equivalent of Twitter Inc.'s (TWTR) value.

Tableau Software (DATA) is down 49% after reporting a fourth-quarter loss of $41.3 million, (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tableau-software-shares-sink-38-after-quarterly-results-2016-02-04) or 57 cents a share, compared with a profit of $20.7 million, or 27 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Symantec Inc. (SYMC) jumped 3% after the tech company said it is getting a fresh cash injection of $500 million (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/despite-billions-in-fresh-cash-symantec-will-cut-costs-and-go-into-debt-2016-02-04) from Silver Lake.

Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) advanced 10% after announcing an increase to its buyback program.

Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. (EL) gained 4.6% after fiscal second-quarter earnings beat expectations.

Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI) shares dropped 15.1% after quarterly earnings released late Thursday fell short of expectations.

Other markets: European stocks ended firmly lower after the U.S. jobs report (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-becalmed-as-investors-await-us-jobs-report-2016-02-05).

Asian stocks ended mixed (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/asian-stocks-mixed-in-run-up-to-lunar-new-year-holiday-2016-02-04) in the run-up to the Lunar New Yeah holiday next week.

Gold scored its

The U.S. dollar edged higher after the jobs report (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dollar-could-hit-115-if-jobs-data-disappoints-analyst-2016-02-05)after reporting one of its worst daily declines in months on Thursday.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2016 16:58 ET (21:58 GMT)