US STOCKS-Wall St tumbles as tech rally loses steam, economic data weighs

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* Weekly jobless claims slip below 1 mln
* Tesla drops for the third straight day
* Apple set to erase most of this week's gains
* Indexes down: Dow 0.43%, S&P 1.09%, Nasdaq 2.29%

(Updates to market open)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
Sept 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes fell on
Thursday as technology-focused stocks lost strength, while
elevated jobless claims and a slowdown in services sector fueled
fears of a slow and prolonged economic recovery.
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. 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. "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.
Unprecedented fiscal and monetary support as well as
increasing bets on stay-at-home tech stocks have been powering
the U.S. stocks markets in the recent weeks.
While the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have notched new highs, the
blue-chip Dow is still about 2% short of its pre-crisis high hit
in February.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Netflix NFLX.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , that have boosted the
broader indexes from their pandemic-led crash, slipped between
1.2% and 3.7%.
The technology sector .SPLRCT dropped 2.9%, while
communication services .SPLRCL and consumer discretionary
.SPLRCD declined about 1% each.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O tumbled 6.1%, falling for the third
straight session.
"There's going to be a rotation at some point in time. There
is this notion that we are closer to a vaccine, and everybody
will get protected and we'll get back to normal by the end of
the year," Hahn said.
Financial .SPSY and energy .SPNY sectors, the two worst
performing S&P sectors this year, were in a bright spot, jumping
0.8% and 1.2%, respectively.
At 10:17 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was down 125.34 points, or 0.43%, at 28,975.16, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 39.17 points, or 1.09%, at 3,541.67. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 276.01 points, or 2.29%, at
11,780.44.
PVH Corp PVH.N rose 6% after 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 1.18-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and for a 1.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 18 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 22 new highs and 19 new lows.