Wall Street drops, ends January with sharp losses

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A selloff in emerging markets sent a cold chill down Wall Street, triggering a slide on Friday and making January its worst month since May 2012 after one of its best years in more than a decade.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 149.70 points, or 0.94 percent, to end unofficially at 15,698.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 11.61 points, or 0.65 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,782.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 19.25 points, or 0.47 percent, to close unofficially at 4,103.88.

For the week, the Dow fell 1.1 percent, the S&P 500 slipped 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq dropped 0.6 percent. In January, the Dow slumped 5.3 percent, the S&P 500 lost 3.6 percent and the Nasdaq fell 1.7 percent. January marked the worst month for the Dow and the S&P 500 since May 2012, and the worst for the Nasdaq since October of that year.

(Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Jan Paschal)