ANKARA 

A major sell-off in technology company stocks pushed US market to close lower and post weekly declines amid weak jobs report of last month and omicron COVID-19 variant worries. 

The Nasdaq plummeted 295 points, or 1.92%, to close at 15,085. The tech-heavy index lost 2.6% for the week.

The S&P 500 fell 38, or 0.84%, to end the day at 4,538 points. It declined 1.2% this week, posting its second consecutive weekly loss.

The Dow Jones lost 59 points, or 0.17%, to close at 34,580. The blue-chip index saw a weekly loss of 0.9% -- its fourth weekly decline in a row.

US economy added 210,000 jobs in November, going much lower than market estimate of 550,000 in November, and showing that the labor market in the world's largest economy is far from full recovery.

After the first case of the omicron variant seen in the state of California, Minnesota became the second state in the country to see the new variant and New York state confirmed five cases of omicron, which created fear and uncertainty among investors.

In a highly volatile week, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, soared 10% to 30.75 for the second time this week -- a level that was last seen on March 5.

The dollar index was steady at 96.16, while the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes fell 6.4% to 1.356%.

Crude prices were mixed with Brent crude was trading at $70.16 per barrel with a 0.7% gain, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was steady at $66.53.

Precious metals were on the rise with gold gaining 0.9% to $1,785 an ounce, and silver increasing 0.7% to $22.54.