By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
(Reuters) – U.S. stocks gained ground on Thursday after a sharp pullback a day earlier as investors piled into technology heavyweights ahead of their earnings reports, while upbeat economic data overshadowed worries about surging coronavirus cases.
Apple Inc <AAPL.O>, Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> and Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O>, which have seen a surge in demand for their products and services from people staying at home during the pandemic, rose between 0.6% and 2.3% ahead of their results after the closing bell.
Social media companies Facebook Inc <FB.O> and Twitter Inc <TWTR.N>, which also report later in the day, jumped about 5% each, riding on Pinterest Inc’s <PINS.N> upbeat forecast for sales growth on healthy rebound in ad spending.
Shares of the image-sharing company soared over 33%.
Communication services <.SPLRCS>, materials <.SPLRCM> and technology <.SPLRCT> rose the most among major S&P sectors.
Sentiment got a further lift after data showed the U.S. economy grew at a record pace in the third quarter as the government poured out more than $3 trillion worth of pandemic relief.
A separate report showed weekly unemployment claims fell more than expected in the latest week.
“It’s positive data but it’s a little bit backward looking because you have COVID-19 cases on the rise again which doesn’t really send a strong signal about the fourth quarter,” said Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal Wealth Management in New York.
“It’s encouraging that we’ve seen a noticeable recovery but not sure if it tells us the path from here.”
The CBOE volatility index <.VIX> hovered near 15-week highs as the White House coronavirus task force urged for aggressive measures to curb the spread of the disease and on anxiety over the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a comfortable lead over President Donald Trump in national polls, but the race in battleground states that will likely decide the election are tighter than the national surveys.
Stalled efforts in Washington over fresh stimulus and an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases globally have put the S&P 500 and Dow on course for their worst week since March.
At 10:53 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 138.93 points, or 0.52% to 26,658.88 and the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 29.16 points, or 0.89% to 3,300.19. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> gained 117.38 points, or 1.07%, to 11,122.25.
Coach owner Tapestry Inc <TPR.N> climbed 4% after it beat estimates for quarterly earnings and forecast growth for the year as demand for luxury handbags and apparel rebounds in China from pandemic lows.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 2-to-1 ratio and by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 65 new lows.
(Reporting by Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
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