US STOCKS-Wall St ends lower on tech sell-off, investors eye slow recovery

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(Updates to add unofficial close, adds commentary)
By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes
closed sharply lower on Thursday, marking their deepest one-day
dives in months as investors dumped the high-flying technology
sector, while economic data highlighted concerns about a long
and difficult recovery.
The technology-centric Nasdaq led the declines as its
heavyweight stocks took a hit with the biggest drags from
companies including Facebook Inc FB.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Inc MSFT.O and
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O .
The five stocks, deemed strong bets because of solid cash
positions and continued growth despite the coronavirus crisis,
also account for roughly a quarter of the S&P 500's market value
and have driven the stock market's narrow technology-led
recovery from the pandemic lows hit in March.
The Philadelphia chip index .SOX and the S&P tech sector
.SPLRCT also dropped more than 5% each.
The pullback comes a day after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq
closed at record levels and the Dow came within 1.5% of its
February peak, powered by fiscal and monetary support hopes for
a swift economic recovery. But some participants said investors
had become too optimistic.
"Think about the mounting number of risks the market has
been shrugging off over the last couple of months here," said
Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist and John Hancock
Investment Management. "We're 60 days away from the election.
That may be an area where investors are getting a bit spooked."
She added: "Looking at the data today, the market has had
the ability to power higher and hasn't paid any attention to a
macro environment which, yes, is improving which is encouraging,
but the economy remains fragile here."
Earlier in the day, data showed the number of Americans
filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than
expected last week, but remained extraordinarily high. The
closely watched monthly payrolls report is set for
Friday Separately, a survey showed U.S. services industry growth
slowed in August, likely as the boost from the reopening of
businesses and fiscal stimulus faded. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
811.33 points, or 2.79%, to 28,289.17, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
125.96 points, or 3.52%, to 3,454.88 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 598.34 points, or 4.96%, to 11,458.10.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX crossed its 200-day moving
average to hit its highest level in weeks.
Still, some investors seemed unconcerned in the face of the
sell-off.
"(Investors) are in love with tech stocks and it's going to
take more than this for them to fall out of love with them,"
said Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest
Volatility Management in New York.
Sebastian Leburn, senior portfolio manager at Boston Private
in Florida, said the decline was "just a rotation" out of
technology stocks: "I don't think it's anything ominous."
Another Nasdaq heavyweight, Tesla Inc TSLA.O , tumbled
again on Thursday after already falling sharply for two straight
sessions.
PVH Corp PVH.N rose after the Calvin Klein owner posted a
surprise quarterly profit, boosted by strong online demand for
comfortable and casual clothing during the coronavirus-led shift
to work from home.