US STOCKS-S&P 500 slips as tech stocks pull market lower

* Intel gains on $20 bln chip expansion announcement
* GameStop slumps on plans to sell shares
* Energy stocks jump 3% as oil prices rebound

(Adds market close at 4 p.m.)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 closed lower on
Wednesday, unable to halt the prior day's selloff, as investors
set aside optimism about the economic recovery by Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
The remarks by the top two U.S. economic officials mirrored
what they told Congress the day before, with Powell saying on
Wednesday the most likely case is 2021 will be "a very, very
strong year." Wall Street has seesawed this week as a months-long rotation
into economically sensitive energy and financial shares, which
have gained on a growing outlook, was upended by falling bond
yields that prompted beaten-down technology stocks to rise.
The 10-year yield fell to about 1.6%, a slide that had
propped up highly valued technology shares that led the Nasdaq
to double from year-ago lows. Value-oriented shares on Wednesday
outpaced a decline in growth stocks, which include tech shares.
Investors have focused on the yield on the benchmark 10-year
Treasury note, pondering whether there is room for long-term
interest rates to run, said David Kelly, chief global strategist
at JPMorgan Asset Management.
"We're in a little bit of a lull here. We know that the
economy is primed to begin to really accelerate in the second
quarter," Kelly said. "But we haven't seen that acceleration yet
so that's what we're waiting for."
Adding to an upward bias for most of the session was data
showing U.S. factory activity picked up in early March amid
strong growth in new orders. But supply chain disruptions
continued to exert cost pressures on manufacturers, keeping
inflation fears in focus.
"Everybody's bullish about the prospects of a recovery right
now," said David Yepez, lead equity analyst and portfolio
manager at Exencial Wealth Advisors. "In order for the market to
bottom we need to have more fear, and I don't feel like the
market has fear right now."
Financials .SPSY and industrials .SPLRCI gained, while
energy .SPNY jumped as crude prices rebounded from a 6% fall
in the last session. O/R
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 5
points, or 0.02%, to 32,418.15, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 21.37
points, or 0.55%, to 3,889.15 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 265.81 points, or 2.01%, to 12,961.89.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Facebook Inc
FB.O led decliners on the S&P 500.
Intel Corp INTC.O retreated after earlier gains as the
company, in its efforts to expand chipmaking capacity, announced
plans to spend as much as $20 billion to build two factories in
Arizona and open its factories to outside customers.
U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor TSM.N dropped,
while semiconductor equipment makers Lam Research Corp LRCX.O ,
Applied Materials Inc AMAT.O and ASML Holding ASML.O rose.
Applied Materials was the biggest boost on the S&P 500.
Bitcoin BTC=BTSP gained after Tesla's founder, Elon Musk,
said the company's electric vehicles can now be bought using
bitcoin and the option will be available outside the United
States later this year. GameStop Corp GME.N tumbled more than 30% after the
videogame retailer said it might cash in on a meteoric rise in
its share price to fund its e-commerce expansion.