US STOCKS-Wall Street set to open lower as labor market recovery cools

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* Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise to 870,000
* Tesla set to tumble for third straight day
* Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan edge higher
* Futures off: Dow 0.61%, S&P 0.76%, Nasdaq 1.28%

(Adds comments; updates prices)
By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Devik Jain
Sept 24 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
slip at the open on Thursday as weekly jobless claims posted a
surprise increase, the strongest signal yet that more fiscal
support would be necessary to avoid another round of mass
layoffs and furloughs.
The Labor Department's most timely report on the economy
showed 870,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits in
the week ended Sept. 19. Job cuts have spread to industries such as financial
services and technology that were not initially impacted by the
mandated business closures in mid-March because of insufficient
demand. But waning hopes of more stimulus, signs of choppy economic
growth and a sell-off in heavyweight technology-related names
have weighed on U.S. stocks this month.
The S&P 500 .SPX is now flat on the year again and is
hovering just above correction territory after peaking on Sept.
2.
The Nasdaq .IXIC entered correction territory earlier this
month, but the blue-chip Dow .DJI has outperformed its peers
on demand for value-linked stocks .IVX such as industrials
.SPLRCI .
"The cloud of uncertainties continues to grow," said Peter
Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities
in New York.
"The coronavirus is now back in the front pages and the
market is now really fearing the uncertainties of the elections.
As we get closer to the end of the month, the downward trend is
intensifying."
At 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were down 163 points,
or 0.61%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 24.5 points, or
0.76%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 139 points, or
1.28%.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Netflix Inc
NFLX.O and Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , which have
led a Wall Street rally since April, fell between 1.2% and 1.9%
in premarket trading.
A 3% slide put Tesla Inc TSLA.O on course for its third
straight day of declines following an underwhelming "Battery
Day" presentation by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.
Big banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , Wells
Fargo & Co WFC.N and JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N edged higher.
US/
Nikola Corp NKLA.O , which is set for one of its biggest
weekly declines ever, tumbled another 9.2% as Wedbush downgraded
the stock to "underperform". Accenture Plc ACN.N fell 6.1% after the IT consulting firm
forecasted current-quarter revenue below expectations and missed
estimates for fourth-quarter sales, hurt by lower spending from
clients impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.