US stock market opens lower with tech losses

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Major US stock indexes opened lower Thursday with technology companies shouldering most of the losses.

The Dow Jones was down 217 points to 31,395 at 9.36 a.m. EDT (1436GMT), while the S&P 500 fell 23 to 3,909 with Tesla shedding 1.5%.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeted 144 to 13,820 with Facebook, Zoom, Netflix and Airbnb each falling more than 1.3%.

The sell-off came after US weekly jobless claims increased much higher than expected, fueling worries that the US labor market is far from recovery.

The uncertainty pushed up the VIX volatility index for the third consecutive day. The fear index jumped 9% to 23.76 shortly after the opening.

The Federal Reserve is expected to continue its asset purchases of a minimum of $120 billion every month, according to minutes from a January meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) released Wednesday.

The central bank intends to keep its benchmark interest rate near zero until the economy nears full employment.

"Economic conditions were currently far from the Committee’s longer-run goals and that the stance for policy would need to remain accommodative until those goals were achieved," said minutes from the meeting.