CORRECTED-US STOCKS-Tech sell-off weighs on Wall St as jobless claims remain high

(Corrects headline to "jobless claims remain high", not
"jobless claims rise")
* Weekly jobless claims stuck at high levels
* Fed vows to keep rates low until 2023
* Technology stocks sell off, big U.S. banks fall
* Indexes down: Dow 0.62%, S&P 0.84%, Nasdaq 1.17%

By Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain
Sept 17 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell on
Thursday after data showed high levels of weekly jobless claims,
while technology-related stocks resumed their slide with Apple
Inc AAPL.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O among the biggest drags
on the Nasdaq.
All 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes fell in early trading,
with energy stocks .SPNY leading declines as fears of tepid
fuel demand hit oil prices. O/R
Bank stocks .SPXBK slipped 1.1%, while the broader
financials subindex .SPSY fell 1.0%, a day after the Federal
Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low for a prolonged
period to lift the world's biggest economy out of a
pandemic-induced recession.
But with Fed Chair Jerome Powell indicating a long road to
"maximum employment", stock markets were disappointed by the
lack of firmer details around the central bank's stimulus plan.
"The bulls basically wanted more long-term bond buying (and)
the fact that the Fed failed to provide that additional upside,
investors are a bit more bearish today," said Mike Bailey,
director of research at FBB Capital Partners in Bethesda,
Maryland.
Adding to concerns around a stalling recovery, the Labor
Department's report showed the number of Americans filing new
claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, but remained
perched at extremely high levels. The Nasdaq .IXIC , which entered correction territory
earlier this month, slipped another 1.2% with Facebook Inc
FB.O , Apple, Amazon.com, Tesla Inc TSLA.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O and Netflix Inc NFLX.O
together losing $150 billion in market capitalization in the
first half hour of trading.
At 10:08 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 172.82 points, or 0.62%, at 27,859.56, and the S&P 500
.SPX was down 28.53 points, or 0.84%, at 3,356.96.
General Electric Co GE.N rose 3.8% after Chief Executive
Officer Larry Culp said on Wednesday the company's free cash
flow would turn positive in the second half of this year.
Ford Motor Co F.N added 1.1% as it said it had begun
production of the new generation F-150 pickup truck at its
Michigan facility. Carnival Corp CCL.N dropped 1.6% after its British
cruiseline P&O Cruises extended a cancellation in sailings until
early 2021. Other cruise operators such as Royal Caribbean
Cruises RCL.N and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH.N
shed 1%.
German biotech firm BioNTech SE BNTX.O rose 2.7% as it
said it was buying a production site from Swiss drugs giant
Novartis NOVN.S to boost output of its potential coronavirus
vaccine by several million doses. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 3.12-to-1 on the NYSE
and 2.13-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded no new 52-week high or low, while the
Nasdaq recorded 15 new highs and 14 new lows.