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* Safety plays gain in risk-off session
* Nvidia drops despite strong forecast
* Dow down 1.3%, S&P 500 down 1.50%, Nasdaq down 2.09% (New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments to mid-afternoon; new byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)
NEW YORK, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dropped more than 1% on Thursday, with investors gravitating toward defensive sectors and safe havens such as bonds and gold as geopolitical tensions heightened between Washington and Russia over Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden said there was every indication Russia was planning to invade Ukraine in the next few days and was preparing a pretext to justify it, after Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels traded fire in eastern Ukraine.
Russia accused Biden of stoking tensions and released a strongly worded letter saying Washington was ignoring its security demands and threatening unspecified "military-technical measures".
The growth-oriented technology and communication services sectors were among the hardest hit, while financials also declined as U.S. Treasury yields moved lower.
"Right now this is certainly the chief consideration and the one that has been causing this market to move really every day this week," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
"The longer it festers, the less of an issue it becomes, assuming that nothing happens. Obviously if we get into ground combat battles or something, that is a whole different story."
The defensive utilities and consumer staples were Wall Street's only advancers, with staples sector , getting a lift from 3.94% jump in Walmart after it posted record holiday sales.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 453.27 points, or 1.3%, to 34,481, the S&P 500 lost 67.21 points, or 1.50%, to 4,407.8 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 295.48 points, or 2.09%, to 13,828.62.'
Developments in Ukraine have also added to uncertainty about the path of the Federal Reserve's tightening plans.
With the end of earnings season on the horizon, chipmaker Nvidia tumbled 7.15% as flat gross margins and concern about its exposure to the crypto market overshadowed an upbeat current-quarter revenue forecast, putting the Philadelphia Semiconductor index on pace for its first daily decline this week.
TripAdvisor Inc lost 2.12% after the hotel search website operator posted a surprise fourth-quarter loss. Albemarle Corp plunged 17.92% as the lithium producer forecast downbeat annual earnings.
As risk aversion pushed bond yields lower, big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America all lost ground. Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo fell even after positive outlooks from the lenders.
Gold was another beneficiary of the move toward safer assets, touching an eight-month high of $1,900.99 an ounce.
Among other big movers, DoorDash Inc shot up 11.69% after it reported upbeat quarterly revenue as food delivery demand showed no sign of slowing.
Hasbro Inc gained 1.99% after activist investor Alta Fox Capital Management nominated five directors to the toymaker's board and urged changes including a spinoff of its unit housing games such as "Dungeons & Dragons".
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.51-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.47-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 6 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 26 new highs and 186 new lows. (Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by David Gregorio)
