US STOCKS-Wall Street tumbles on tech selloff as bond yields climb

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* U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rises above S&P 500 div yield
* Best Buy slips on downbeat annual sales forecast
* Weekly jobless claims decline
* Indexes down: Dow 1.4%, S&P 2.1%, Nasdaq 2.9%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes dropped on
Thursday, with the Nasdaq on track for its worst day in four
months, as technology-related stocks remained under pressure
following a rise in U.S. bond yields.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yields US10YT=RR hit a
one-year high of 1.53%, prompting investors to lock in profits
on some high-flying growth stocks due to concerns over
heightened valuations. US/
The Treasury note yield also rose above S&P 500 dividend
yield, wiping out historically strong advantage that the stock
market yield has held. Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and
Netflix Inc NFLX.O were down between 1.9% and 2.9%.
"The concern is that we haven't been in an environment of
persistently rising inflation expectations so it creates this
new dynamic for investors," said Max Gokhman, head of asset
allocation at Pacific Life Fund Advisors in Newport Beach,
California.
"The market is stretched, a lot of forward growth
expectations have been baked in and that's creating some of the
excuse to blow up steam for some investors who were a little too
bullish."
The S&P 500 technology sector .SPLRCT and communication
services .SPLRCL , among the sectors that powered the market's
rally in 2020, were down 3.9% and 2.3%.
The S&P 500 growth index .IGX is nearly unchanged in
February, sharply underperforming the value index .IVX , which
has gained more than 7% on optimism related to a post-pandemic
reopening of the economy.
Meanwhile, data showed fewer Americans filed new claims for
unemployment benefits last week amid falling COVID-19
infections, but the near-term outlook still remained unclear
after winter storms wreaked havoc in the South region in the
middle of this month.
Optimism about more U.S. stimulus and a quicker pace of
vaccinations at the beginning of the month have positioned the
the Dow Jones .DJI index for its best monthly gain since
November.
However, the lack of significant new developments around the
fiscal package and the winding down of the earnings season have
caused uncertainty in the market.
"In the beginning of February, the stimulus news was the
driving force but now that it has been priced in, there is
nothing on the distant horizon for equity investors to be
excited about and there is a concern that upside is limited,"
said Mike Zigmont, head of trading and research at Harvest
Volatility Management.
At 01:53 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 462.22 points, or 1.45%, to 31,499.64, the S&P 500 .SPX
lost 81.40 points, or 2.07%, to 3,844.03 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC lost 390.55 points, or 2.87%, to 13,207.42.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O fell 5.5% after a media report that the
electric-car maker told workers it would temporarily halt some
production at its car assembly plant in California. Moderna Inc MRNA.O jumped 4.6% after the drugmaker said it
was expecting to post $18.4 billion in sales from its COVID-19
vaccine this year. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 5.5-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 5.4-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 70 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 252 new highs and 87 new lows.