* Chevron's warning fuels more earnings, economic jitters
* Consumer confidence falls to weakest since March
* Goldman upgrade helps tech
* Dow off 0.8 pct, S&P off 0.7 pct, Nasdaq off 0.1 pct (Updates to late afternoon, changes byline)
By Edward Krudy
NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 set for their fourth weekly drop after Chevron warned about its second- quarter results and consumer confidence fell to it lowest level since March.
But the technology-heavy Nasdaq outperformed the wider market after Goldman Sachs upgraded the U.S. hardware and software sectors to "attractive" from "neutral," citing potential growth in demand from businesses.
Among a series of other calls, Goldman raised its price target on the stock of Apple Inc to $160 from $145. Apple's shares jumped 1.4 percent to $138.33 and gave the top boost to the Nasdaq.
The news on Chevron and the U.S consumer underscored investors' concerns that an economic recovery and corporate profits in the second-quarter earnings season may be weak. U.S. oil futures prices fell as much as 1.5 percent earlier in the session to slide below $60 a barrel, which prompted investors to sell some shares of energy companies.
"People are starting to question whether the economic recovery is going to take place in the latter part of this year or whether it's going to come next year," said Cleveland Rueckert, market analyst at Birinyi Associates in Stamford, Connecticut.
"I think that has been the general sentiment over the last few weeks," he said. "Some of the (economic) data points haven't really lined up with the projected recovery this year."
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 64.99 points, or 0.79 percent, to 8,118.18. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 5.76 points, or 0.65 percent, to 876.92. The Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 1.38 points, or 0.08 percent, to 1,751.17.
The S&P 500's recent rally of nearly 40 percent from a 12-year closing low in early march has stalled as investors failed to find hard evidence that the economy is recovering at a healthy pace. The broad-based index is off 7 percent since hitting a peak on June 12.
Weighing on investors, U.S. consumer sentiment soured in early July, slipping to its weakest since March, when confidence in the financial sector and economy were at a low ebb, according to Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.
Energy shares were the biggest losers in the S&P 500, pressured both by a drop in crude oil prices and after Chevron said that any benefit from higher oil prices would be largely offset by a weaker dollar in the second quarter. Chevron's stock fell 2.8 percent to $61.34 and was among the Dow's top percentage decliners.
The S&P Energy Index dropped 1.1 percent.
August crude futures lost 36 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $60.05 per barrel; the price of oil was poised for the biggest weekly fall since January.
Goldman Sachs' call on technology shares followed a similar move by Banc of America-Merrill Lynch earlier in the week, when it upgraded the U.S. semiconductor sector.
Reuckert said the technology sector could be set to advance if the market starts to reverse recent defensive moves into areas such as healthcare and consumer staples, especially if earnings season surprises on the upside.
"It's really the growth stocks that are going to be in focus throughout the earnings season," he said. "I would really be looking at technology. When you think about growth stocks, that's what pops into people's minds." (Editing by Jan Paschal)