Growth worries, Chinese tech rout drag Wall Street lower; Dow tanks 500 pts

Weekly jobless claims rise unexpectedly last week; economy linked stocks, mega-cap tech names under pressure

Wall Street's main indexes fell sharply on Thursday as the spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant cast doubts over an economic recovery, while a rout in Chinese tech stocks appeared to have spilled across markets.

Investors globally turned wary of risk. Equities fell and bond prices rallied on worries about Beijing's crackdown on foreign-listed Chinese firms and a sustained global economic recovery.

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc, which has been at the center of a selloff after its app was taken down by Beijing, fell 6%.

Other U.S.-listed Chinese stocks fell, tracking steep losses in China and Hong Kong, with e-commerce giant