US STOCKS-Nasdaq rises on tech boost as economic recovery cools

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* Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise to 870,000
* Nikola plunges after Wedbush downgrade
* Accenture slides, BlackBerry rises on quarterly earnings
* Indexes up: Dow 0.20%, S&P 0.36%, Nasdaq 0.59%

(Updates to open)
By Sagarika Jaisinghani and Devik Jain
Sept 24 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq led gains on Wall Street on
Thursday as investors returned to technology-related stocks,
while a surprise rise in weekly jobless claims signaled that
more fiscal support would be necessary to avoid another round of
mass layoffs and furloughs.
Nine of the 11 major S&P indexes were trading higher, with
information technology .SPLRCT among the biggest gainers.
Tech heavyweights Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O , Netflix Inc NFLX.O , Nvidia Corp NVDA.O and
Facebook Inc .FB.O , which tend to outperform at a time of
increased economic uncertainty, rose between 1.0% and 2.6%.
Waning hopes of more stimulus, signs of choppy economic
growth and a sell-off in technology-related names have weighed
on U.S. stocks this month.
The S&P 500 briefly fell 10% below its intraday record high
hit on Sept. 2. If the benchmark index closes at that level, it
will enter correction territory.
"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 on 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."
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. At 10:13 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 0.20%, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 0.36% and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up or 0.59%.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX edged higher for the third
time in four days.
"The key is the VIX index, which has not yet reached levels
that would suggest a continued strong move to the downside,"
Cardillo said.
"So you might get a day of bargain hunting followed by a day
of selling, but as the last days of September come into place,
we should begin to see some sort of window dressing by
institutions."
Big banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , Wells
Fargo & Co WFC.N and Morgan Stanley MS.N rose between 0.8%
and 3.8%. US/
Nikola Corp NKLA.O , which is set for its biggest weekly
declines ever, slumped another 13.7% as Wedbush downgraded the
stock to "underperform". Accenture Plc ACN.N fell 5.6% after the IT consulting firm
forecast current-quarter revenue below expectations and missed
estimates for fourth-quarter sales, hurt by lower spending from
clients impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry Ltd BB.N jumped 9% after
the Canadian security software firm posted a surprise rise in
quarterly revenue, led by higher demand for its security
software suite, Spark, and its QNX car software. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 1.31-to-1 on the NYSE
and the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high and two new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded five new highs and 87 new lows.