US STOCKS-Wall St sinks on tech selloff, recovery worries

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* VIX jumps to a seven-week high
* Weekly jobless claims slip below 1 mln
* Tesla drops for the third straight day
* Indexes fall: Dow 2.18%, S&P 2.93%, Nasdaq 4.40%

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By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
Sept 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes tumbled on
Thursday, heading for their worst day since June as investors
dumped high-flying technology-focused stocks, while economic
data highlighted concerns about a long and difficult recovery.
Shares of Facebook FB.O , Apple AAPL.O , Amazon.com
AMZN.O , Netflix NFLX.O and Alphabet GOOGL.O sank between
4.6% and 6.2%. The NYSE FANG+TM Index .NYFANG , which includes
the five core FAANG stocks, shed 6.2%, putting it on track for
its biggest one-day decline since March 16.
Unprecedented fiscal and monetary support as well as
increasing bets on stay-at-home tech stocks have powered a rally
in U.S. stocks in recent weeks, sending the S&P 500 and Nasdaq
to record closing highs on Wednesday.
"Some of the stocks have gotten a little pricey, and what
the actual cause is to spark this selloff is difficult to say,"
said Randy Frederick, vice-president of trading and derivatives
for Charles Schwab in Austin.
"The leading sector for quite a long time has been the
Nasdaq, which is very heavily weighted in technology stocks so
people just saw this as an opportunity to take the profits off
the table."
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
government's closely watched monthly payrolls report is set for
Friday. "We're going to struggle to put people back to work, it's
going to be another three to four years and then we have to
sustain it," said Greg Hahn, chief investment officer at
Winthrop Capital Management in Indiana.
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. Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX crossed its 200-day moving
average, to hit its highest level in seven weeks.
The technology sector .SPLRCT declined 5%, while
communication services .SPLRCL and consumer discretionary
.SPLRCD lost more than 3% each.
At 11:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 633.96 points, or 2.18%, at 28,466.54, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 105.09 points, or 2.93%, at 3,475.75. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 530.39 points, or 4.40%, at
11,526.06.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O tumbled 7.4%, falling for the third
straight session.
PVH Corp PVH.N rose 3.6% 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.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 3.87-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 4.12-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 18 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 23 new highs and 38 new lows.