Wall Street's volatility gauge spiked, the U.S. dollar further strengthened, and benchmark Treasury yields declined. The falling yields hurt interest rate-sensitive bank stocks, making them the day's top decliners on the S&P 500. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of American shed more than 2%.

Mercadien Asset Management President Ken Kamen said Wall Street made an errant knee-jerk reaction by selling economically-sensitive cyclical stocks.

"I actually think that the market is kind of getting it wrong here in that we're having a lot of economic activity going to happen still from the reopening trade. We're still getting a global spreading of vaccine. There's a whole bunch of things to rethink that we're going to have an economy that's not going to be slowing down over the next year or two."

The Dow ended 1.6% lower, declining every day of this week. The S&P 500 fell 1.3%. The Nasdaq shed 0.9%.

On the week, the Dow lost nearly 3.5% as the S&P snapped a three-week winning streak, and the Nasdaq also lost ground.

Adobe shares rose 2.6% to hit an all-time high. They were the second-leading gainer on the S&P. The software developer behind Photoshop saw its top and bottom lines and profit forecast top Wall Street's expectations.