US stocks plummet as technology leads losses



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NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) – US stocks tumbled on Thursday as a strong sell-off in tech stocks dragged the market.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 807.77 points, or 2.78 percent, to finish at 28,292.73. The 30-share index lost more than 1,000 points, or about 3.5 percent, at the lows.

The S&P 500 fell 125.78 points, or 3.51 percent, to close at 3,455.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 598.34 points, or 4.96 percent, to 11,458.10.

Shares of Apple and Microsoft fell 8 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, leading the laggards on the Dow.

Shares of other big US tech giants, including Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, also declined markedly.

The S&P 500’s 11 primary sectors fell, and technology fell 5.8 percent, the worst-performing group.

Chinese companies listed in the US were lower, and all of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P US Listed China 50 Index ended the day on a negative note.

On the data front, the U.S. Service Purchasing Managers Index fell to 56.9 percent in August from July’s reading of 58.1 percent, the Institute of Supply Management reported Thursday. , which indicates a slower growth rate.

Initial U.S. jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, fell to 881,000 in the week ending Aug. 29, after an upwardly revised 1.01 million the previous week, the Labor Department said.

The decline in new claims was mainly due to a major change in seasonal adjustment methodology, and the labor market showed little progress without the change, according to analysts.



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