Dow Jones Industrial Average : Historic start to a year as Wall St. reels on China woes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Dow industrials posted their worst 5-day start to a year on record on Friday on continued worries that a slowdown in China could damage the global economy, even as U.S. jobs growth was stronger than expected.

For the day, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 167.65 points, or 1.02 percent, to 16,346.45, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 21.06 points, or 1.08 percent, to 1,922.03 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 45.80 points, or 0.98 percent, to 4,643.63.

The weekly declines on the S&P and Dow, 6 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, were the largest for any week going back to September 2011.

Data from S&P Dow Jones Indices showed the 5-day declines for both indexes were the largest on record to mark the start of the year.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Nick Zieminski)