TECH STOCKS: Bad News On Jobs Chills MarketsTECH STOCKS: Bad News On Jobs Chills Markets

Stocks fell on Friday after a government report that U.S. job growth virtually ground to a halt in December.

The Labor Department reported that employers added only 1,000 new nonfarm jobs in December, far less than a forecast by economists that the nation's payrolls would add 150,000 positions. Those numbers suggest that the economic recovery still has yet to translate into sustained job growth. The department also revised downward reported gains for October and November. Payroll employment grew by only 43,000 jobs in November, down from 57,000 originally reported. And the economy added only 100,000 jobs in October, down from 137,000.

That news chilled the market even more than the Siberian Express that brought frigid weather to Wall Street and the rest of the Northeast. The information 100 index fell 2.13 points, or 0.6%, to 336.91--though it finished the week up 6.2%. The Dow Jones industrials fell 133.55 points, or 1.3%, to 10,458.89. The Nasdaq composite fell 13.33 points, or 0.6%, to 2,082.92. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 10.06 points, or 0.9%, to close at 1,121.86. Also, the Nasdaq-100 tracking stock fell 23 cents, or 0.6%, to close at $37.75.

For the week, the Dow industrials rose 0.5%, the Nasdaq increased 4%, and the S&P 500 rose 1.2%. The Nasdaq-100 stock rose $1.39, or 3.8% for the week.

SBC Communications and AT&T were the Dow's biggest percentage losers after being downgraded by leading brokerages. AT&T's share price fell 4.2%, or 92 cents, to $21.06 after Deutsche Bank Securities cut its rating on the company to "sell" from "hold." SBC's price also fell after Merrill Lynch cut its rating to "sell" from "neutral." The No. 3 U.S. local phone company's share price fell 5%, or $1.39, to $26.20.