NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks finished Thursday's session lower as major tech shares pulled back, weighing on the market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 128.05 points, or 0.44 percent, to 29,219.98. The S&P 500 was down 12.92 points, or 0.38 percent, to 3,373.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 66.21 points, or 0.67 percent, to 9,750.96.
Shares of major U.S. tech giants, the FAANG group of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, all retreated.
Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended lower, with technology down 1.01 percent, leading the laggards.
Wall Street continued to digest the minutes of the Federal Reserve's Jan. 28-29 meeting. The filing released Wednesday afternoon showed little intention of easing policy soon.
Traders have been pricing in at least one rate cut from the Fed for this year, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
On the data front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 210,000 for the week ending Feb. 15, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 205,000 to 206,000.
The Leading Economic Index for the United States increased 0.8 percent in January to 112.1, following a 0.3 percent decline in December and a 0.1 percent increase in November, said New York-based The Conference Board. Enditem
