US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow advance as stimulus bill gets Senate nod

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* Disney gains as California allows theme parks to reopen
* Bank stocks advance as yields rise on stimulus bill
* GameStop jumps after tapping Ryan Cohen to lead transition
* Indexes: Dow rises 1.3%, S&P up 0.5%, Nasdaq down 0.6%

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By Shashank Nayar and Medha Singh
March 8 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow climbed on
Monday, led by stocks poised to benefit the most from an
economic rebound as the U.S. Senate passed the $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief aid, while heavyweight tech-related stocks swung
between gains and losses.
President Joe Biden said he hoped for a quick passage of the
revised coronavirus relief package by the House of
Representatives so he could sign it and send $1,400 direct
payments to Americans. Prospects of more government spending and faster economic
growth have stoked fears of a spike in inflation, sending the
benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to near one-year highs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, however, said the
package would fuel a "very strong" U.S. recovery and she did not
expect the economy to run too hot because of the increased
spending. The Dow was less than 100 points below its record closing
high. The materials sector .SPLRCM neared an all-time peak,
while industrials .SPLRCI and financials .SPSY hit record
levels. Only the technology .SPLRCT sector was in the red.
"This is an ideal traders' market with certain sectors and
individual stocks performing better than the wider market, as
investors pick and choose individual stocks that will perform
better as the economy reopens," said Anthony Denier, chief
executive officer of trading platform Webull.
Most tech-related stocks, including Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O resumed a slide from the past three weeks on fears of
higher interest rates, after the recent run-up in U.S. bond
yields.
Tech stocks are particularly sensitive to rising yields
because their value rests heavily on earnings in the future,
which are discounted more deeply when bond returns go up.
The Russell 1000 growth index .RLG that includes
technology stocks dropped about 0.4%, underperforming a 1.3%
rise for its counterpart value index .RLV , that consists of
cyclical stocks such as financials and energy.
At 11:47 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 419.45 points, or 1.33%, to 31,917.43, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 18.75 points, or 0.49%, to 3,860.69, and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC lost 80.27 points, or 0.63%, to 12,838.36.
Banks .SPXBK added about 0.8% as the yield on the
benchmark 10-year note US10YT=TWEB stood near a 13-month high,
while airlines .SPCOMAIR jumped about 5%.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX hovered near 25 points.
US/
Walt Disney Co DIS.N jumped about 4.5% as California
health officials set new rules that would allow Disneyland and
other theme parks, stadiums and outdoor entertainment venues to
reopen as early as April 1. GameStop Corp GME.N surged about 30% after the company
said it had tapped shareholder Ryan Cohen to lead a transition
to an e-commerce business. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.9-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 105 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 407 new highs and 32 new lows.