US STOCKS-Wall St falls on mixed economic data; Apple weighs

* Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) and Celgene (Swiss: CELG.SW - news) weigh on Nasdaq, S&P 500

* Jobless claims lowest since 2000

* Consumer confidence rises less than expected in March

* Indexes down: Dow 0.6 pct, S&P 0.6 pct, Nasdaq 1 pct (Updates to early afternoon)

By Tanya Agrawal

April 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street was lower in afternoon trading on Thursday as Apple weighed on major indexes and investors digested a mixed batch of economic data.

Nine of the 10 major S&P sectors were down, with the technology index retreating 1.2 percent. The Nasdaq biotech index dropped 2.2 percent, led by Celgene .

Apple fell as much as 2.6 percent to $125.25 and was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The company limited the availability of the Apple Watch after a key component was found to be defective, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Investors were also digesting a mixed bag of economic data which came in a day after data showed that the U.S. economy slowed to a crawl in the first quarter.

While the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits tumbled to a 15-year low last week, consumer spending rose less-than-expected in March as personal income stayed flat.

Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, said investors were operating in a period of high uncertainty.

"I think its very, very healthy to see some back and forth in the equity markets. Economic data is still going to be a bit mixed in the near term and that can be used as a crutch for the markets."

At 13:24 p.m. EDT (1724 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was down 102.53 points, or 0.57 percent, at 17,933, the S&P 500 was down 12.79 points, or 0.61 percent, at 2,094.06 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 51.74 points, or 1.03 percent, at 4,971.90.

Celgene fell 3.5 percent to $109.28 and was the biggest drag on the biotech index after the company blamed the dollar for its lower-than-expected quarterly revenue. The stock was the second biggest drag on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Baidu (Xetra: A0F5DE - news) declined 7.1 percent to $203.25 after China's dominant Internet search engine provider posted its slowest quarterly revenue growth rate in almost seven years.

"The tech sector is a very "risk-on" sector and is the sector most sensitive to perceived rate hikes, so you're seeing some reshuffling in portfolios," said Brian Fenske, head of sales trading at ITG (Shanghai: 600755.SS - news) in New York.

Google (Xetra: A0B7FY - news) , IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) and Intel (Swiss: INTC.SW - news) were down by 1.2 to 1.8 percent.

Yelp (NYSE: YELP - news) shares slumped as much as 24 percent to a near two-year low of $39.25 a day after the operator of consumer review website forecast second-quarter revenue below analysts' expectations.

Colgate-Palmolive slipped 2.1 percent to $67.08 after cutting its full-year profit forecast for the second time, saying the impact of the dollar would worsen.

Earnings expected after the close on Thursday include Dow component Visa (Xetra: A0NC7B - news) , insurer AIG and LinkedIn.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,188 to 781, for a 2.80-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,918 issues fell and 786 advanced for a 2.44-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 6 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 34 new highs and 69 new lows. (Editing by Savio D'Souza)