REFILE-US STOCKS-Tech tumble jams Wall Street into reverse; sharpest fall since June

(Refiles to say "at John Hancock" instead of "and John Hancock"
in paragraph 8)
* VIX jumps to highest point since June, closes below
session high
* Weekly jobless claims slip below 1 mln
* Tesla drops for third straight day
* Indexes fall: Dow 2.78%, S&P 3.51%, Nasdaq 4.96%

By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes
closed sharply lower on Thursday, marking their deepest one-day
declines since June as investors dumped the high-flying
technology sector, while economic data highlighted concerns
about a long and difficult recovery.
The Nasdaq led the pullback with a decline of almost 5% a
day after it and the S&P 500 posted record closing highs.
The Nasdaq's biggest drags came from heavyweights Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Microsoft Inc MSFT.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Tesla
Inc TSLA.O and Nvidia Corp NVDA.O .
The S&P tech sector .SPLRCT and the Philadelphia chip
index .SOX both fell almost 6% on the day.
Markets had soared from March lows, powered by fiscal and
monetary support hopes for a swift economic recovery. But some
participants said investors had become too optimistic.
"Think about the mounting number of risks the market has
been shrugging off over the last couple of months here," said
Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock
Investment Management. "We're 60 days away from the election.
That may be an area where investors are getting a bit spooked."
She added: "Looking at the data today, the market has had
the ability to power higher and hasn't paid any attention to a
macro environment which, yes, is improving which is encouraging,
but the economy remains fragile here."
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 next
big data focus for investors is Friday morning's monthly
payrolls report. 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. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 807.77 points,
or 2.78%, to close at 28,292.73, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 125.78
points, or 3.51%, to 3,455.06 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 598.34 points, or 4.96%, to 11,458.10.
While S&P and Nasdaq's percentage declines on Thursday were
their deepest since June 11, it was the Dow's biggest one-day
plunge since June 26.
It was the Nasdaq's third-biggest one-day fall from a record
close, according to data from Bespoke Investment Group.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX crossed its 200-day moving
average to hit its highest level in weeks. It closed up 7 points
at 33.60.
Still, some investors seemed unconcerned in the face of the
sell-off.
"(Investors) are in love with tech stocks and it's going to
take more than this for them to fall out of love with them,"
said Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest
Volatility Management in New York.
Sebastian Leburn, senior portfolio manager at Boston Private
in Florida, said the decline was "just a rotation" out of
technology stocks: "I don't think it's anything ominous."
Another key Nasdaq component, Tesla Inc TSLA.O , tumbled
9% on Thursday after falling sharply the previous two sessions.
PVH Corp PVH.N rose 3.3% 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 advancing ones on the NYSE by a
4.14-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 4.20-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 24 new highs and 53 new lows.
About 11.98 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges,
compared with the 9.22 billion daily average over the last 20
sessions.