NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Tech stocks sank for the fifth straight session Friday, dragging the rest of the market with them and capping a very rough week for the market.

The culprits were renewed worries about rising interest rates and the war in Iraq, which again overshadowed a stellar round of corporate earnings reports.

The Nasdaq composite (down 38.60 to 1920.15, Charts) lost 2 percent for the day and tumbled 6.3 percent for the week, continuing its recent pattern of falling more than the other indexes.

The Standard & Poor's 500 (down 6.50 to 1107.30, Charts) index lost 0.6 percent and the Dow Jones industrial average (Charts) fell 0.4 percent in Friday's action.

"It's been a rough week, and at the end of the month, a painful round trip," said Barry Ritholtz, market strategist at Maxim Group.

"Stock valuations have been stretched, everyone knows a rate hike is coming and great earnings are already baked into the stock market, so you're seeing this churning, and unfortunately, I would expect it to continue for the next few weeks."

A month of strong first-quarter earnings and improving economic indicators left investors confused as to how to respond -- by cheering the strength or worrying about the inevitable rise in inflation and interest rates that is bound to follow.

For the most part, worries won out.

The same trend played out Friday, as solid earnings from Dow component Procter & Gamble and other blue chips couldn't compete with the market's negative tone. It was a fitting end to a tough week in which the Dow lost nearly 2.4 percent and the S&P 500 lost 2.9 percent.

Prior to this week, the major indexes were in the black for April despite nearly four weeks of choppy trade. But this week turned decidedly sour, with investors bailing out of techs and a number of other sectors.

For the month of April, the Dow lost nearly 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 lost 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq lost 3.7 percent.

Next week's big focus will be the Federal Reserve's policy meeting. The central bank meets Tuesday to discuss short-term interest rates. Wall Street does not expect the Fed to raise rates from the current historically low levels at this particular meeting. However, many economists do expect the central bank to change its 'bias' when it meets next week to suggest an inclination toward raising interest rates, or at the very least, to change the wording in its statement so as to prepare the markets for an eventual rise.

"I don't know if they are going to change the bias, but I would be stunned if they didn't subtly change the phrasing to prepare the market for a rise in rates, said Ritholtz. ”The word "patience" is likely to disappear.”

The Fed will likely to choose to be especially careful with the statement, said Tim Heekin, head of stock trading at Thomas Weisel Partners, due to the fact that the monthly employment report is due three days after the meeting.

“If the unemployment number proves to be really strong one way or the other, that could change things,” Heekin added.

A number of big-cap tech stocks tumbled in active Nasdaq trade.

Foundry Networks (FDRY: down $2.80 to $11.30, Research, Estimates) tumbled 20.1 percent on heavy volume after the maker of telecom network gear reported first-quarter results and offered a second-quarter forecast that was short of estimates.

The news pressured a variety of networking stocks, including Cisco Systems (CSCO: down $1.00 to $20.91, Research, Estimates), which fell 4.6 percent and topped the Nasdaq's most-actives list.

Gateway (GTW: down $0.49 to $4.82, Research, Estimates) sank 9.2 percent after the company reported a quarterly loss that narrowed from a year earlier, but was wider than what analysts were expecting, and also said it would cut an additional 1,500 employees by the end of the year as part of a broad restructuring.

Computer products distributor Ingram Micro (IM: down $4.13 to $11.95, Research, Estimates) plunged 25.7 percent in active New York Stock Exchange trade after the company warned that second-quarter results would miss estimates, sparking a number of bearish brokerage notes. The forecast overshadowed the company's stellar first-quarter results.

Biotech Genta (GNTA: down $5.80 to $8.60, Research, Estimates) lost 40.4 percent in unusually active trade after a U.S. regulatory board said the effectiveness of the company's key skin cancer treatment, Genasense, was "questionable," due to problems with the way the clinical trial was designed, as well as missing data. Genta is developing the treatment with European firm Aventis.

In addition, Internet stocks were weak, with Yahoo! (YHOO: down $4.10 to $50.53, Research, Estimates) losing another 7.6 percent in the wake of Google's Thursday afternoon news that it's filed with regulators for a much-anticipated initial public offering, which it expects to raise as much as $2.7 billion.

The big declines in tech are part of a broader sector rotation that's been going on for a while, with investors sinking funds into energy and other sectors, Heekin said.

Even Procter & Gamble (PG: down $0.22 to $105.75, Research, Estimates) ended up closing lower, despite clinging to positive territory for most of the session after reporting earnings Friday morning of $1.09 a share, up from a year earlier and a penny more than expected.

Market breadth was negative and volume was heavy. On the New York Stock Exchange, declining stocks topped advancers by more than two to one on volume of about 1.61 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, losers held a six-to-one lead over gainers as 2.16 billion shares changed hands.

U.S. stocks tanked in the last two sessions as interest rate fears ramped up, particularly following Thursday's gross domestic product report. It showed the economy grew at a slower-than-predicted pace in the first quarter, but that inflationary aspects of the report grew faster than expected.

Correction Earlier versions of this story reported that rising stocks outnumbered losers on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, which was not accurate. CNN/Money regrets the error.

That continued Friday following reports that showed personal income and spending both rose in March, although spending rose less than had been expected. The closely watched University of Michigan consumer sentiment report also came in higher than had been expected, as did a report on manufacturing in the Midwest.

Strength in economic reports has been treated as neutral to even negative lately, with investors reading a confirmation of higher rates in the strong data.

The worries about inflation aren't new, having kept stock markets rangebound for weeks. Investors are seeing signs of an inevitable rise in rates in the spate of improved earnings and economic reports, not to mention comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other Fed officials.

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Analysts say stock markets are not likely to make any new highs in the near-term due to the continued worries about inflation and interest rates, as well as higher oil and other commodity prices, the recovering dollar, which could sap revenue from multinational companies, and the ongoing threat of terrorism, in particular, the events in Iraq.

Treasury prices gained. The 10-year note added 1/4 of a point, for a yield of 4.50 percent, down from 4.54 percent late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The dollar was flat versus the euro and higher versus the yen.

Among commodities markets, NYMEX light sweet crude oil futures rose 7 cents to settle at $37.38 a barrel. COMEX gold gained 40 cents to settle at $387.50 an ounce.