The Dow Jones industrial average was off 143.41 points, or 1.5 percent, at 9,120.67, putting the blue-chip index below the 9,181.43 mark where it started the year. For the week, it was off 219.88.

In the broader market, declining issues beat advances 1,815 to 1,221 on active volume of 773 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

The technology-laced Nasdaq composite index was off 5.84 points, or 0.2 percent, at 2,338.88.

"IBM's earnings came out good, but not spectacular, and it combined with Brazil for a general reallocation," said Dan Ascani, director of research at Global Market Strategists.

International Business Machines Corp. fell 17-5/17 to close at 179-3/4 on the NYSE where it was the most active stock. The loss accounted for roughly 71 points of the Dow's decline and wiped $16.56 billion off IBM's market capitalization.

Also, many investors had been banking that IBM would announce a stock split; it did not.

"I think investors are expecting earnings to come better than what they're going to be so in the near-term, we could have more of a pullback," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor's Industry Reports.

IBM reported earnings late Thursday of $2.47 per share in the latest quarter, vs. expectations for profits of $2.45 against $2.11 a year earlier.

Meanwhile, concerns that Brazil's economic instability and currency devaluation, which could weaken other countries in Latin America — a major U.S. trading partner — weighed on stocks.

Brazil's Central Bank intervened in local currency markets for the first time since it let the currency, the real, float last week. The bank defended the real against a free fall.

"We're suffering from worries that the U.S. manufacturing sector could get weaker as we export less to (Brazil)," said Tom Carpenter, chief economist at ASB Capital Management Inc.

"Then there's the fear that since they devalued their currency, maybe China and Hong Kong think it," he said.

Some of the high-flying technology stocks fell after analysts said the sector may be overvalued.

Among them, Intel Corp. was off 4-5/8 at 128-7/8 and Lucent Technologies Inc. lost 3-12/16 at 103-3/16.

There were some gainers in the tech sector. BMC Software Inc. rose 5-6/16 to 43-15/16 after the data storage company posted strong earnings.

Covad Communications Group Inc. soared 27-3/8 to 45-3/8 as the provider of high-speed digital communication services made its debut on Wall Street.

Airlines were also weighing on the Dow index after the Air Transportation Association released data that showed weaker business for major U.S. airlines in December.

AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, fell 3-1/8 to 55-1/4, Delta Air Lines Inc. lost 1-9/16 to 48-13/16 and UAL Corp., the parent of United Airlines, was off 3/16 to 59-13/16.

Just For Feet Inc. stumbled 3-3/8 to 14 after the footwear retailer said its fourth-quarter earnings will be below Wall Street estimates due to lower-than-expected sales. Also weighing on its results was the cost of acquiring Sneaker Stadium stores.

Internet stocks that had dropped this week as investors' interest cooled regained some altitude.

Among them, book retailer Amazon.com Inc. was up 17 to 123, auctioneer eBay Inc. jumped 15 to 196-3/4 and Broadcast.com Inc. rose 27-3/4 to 136-1/4.

The Standard & Poor's composite index of 500 stocks fell 9.97 points to 1,225.19. The American Stock Exchange index was off 0.30 to 704.69.

The NYSE Composite index of all listed common stocks fell 4.28 to 583.75. The average share was off 33 cents.

The Wilshire Associates Equity Index — the market value of NYSE, American and Nasdaq issues — was 11,290.330 down 78.507 or 0.69 percent.