US STOCKS-Stocks rebound in late-day rally on Wall Street

* Weekly jobless claims fall
* Biden calls jobless claims report economic progress
* Nike skids on social media fallout over Xinjiang statement

(Adds market close at 4 p.m.)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in a
late-day rally on Thursday as investors bought stocks likely to
do well in the recovery, while picking up beaten-down Apple and
Tesla shares, in anticipation that the U.S. economy grows at its
fastest pace in decades this year.
President Joe Biden cited as economic progress Labor
Department data that showed a declining number of Americans
claimed unemployment insurance, news investors shrugged off
earlier as Wall Street traded lower most of the session.
The labor report on Thursday showed claims for unemployment
benefits dropped to a one-year low last week, a sign that the
U.S. economy is on the verge of stronger growth as the public
health situation improves and temperatures rise. An end-of-quarter rebalancing of investment portfolios by
institutional investors added to another mostly seesaw session
in which the major Wall Street indexes rose and fell amid the
ongoing rotation from growth into so-called value stocks.
"It's a very confused stock market, there isn't real
leadership," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at
Inverness Counsel in New York.
"One day cyclicals are in favor, the next day it's tech-plus
is in favor," he said. "But on the positive side, there isn't
what I call aggressive selling."
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
200.81 points, or 0.62%, to 32,620.87, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
20.59 points, or 0.53%, to 3,909.73 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 15.79 points, or 0.12%, to 12,977.68.
Earlier, the Dow was higher while the Nasdaq was lower, a
reverse correlation that has occurred already far more this year
than in typically in an entire year, said David Bahnsen, chief
investment officer at the Bahnsen Group in Newport Beach,
California.
"Any reverse correlation between the Dow and Nasdaq is
pretty embedded right now, and I expect it will continue,"
Bahnsen said. "There is ongoing rotation out of tech, there's
ongoing de-risking for some of the small caps."
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC has fallen in March after four
straight months of gains as rosy economic projections lifted
demand for undervalued cyclical stocks, but also raised fears of
higher inflation as seen in the jump in 10-year Treasury yields.
The rapid rise in the 10-year is not bearish but rather a
bullish indicator, Bahnsen said.
"It is happening because we're vaccinating, it is happening
as the economy reopens, it is happening because we're going to
get a really big, high single-digit GDP number this year," he
said.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX was up for a third straight
day after briefly falling to its pre-pandemic lows earlier this
week.
Shares of Nike Inc NKE.N fell as the sporting goods giant
faced a Chinese social media backlash over its comments about
reports of forced labor in Xinjiang. Darden Restaurants Inc DRI.N surged after it announced a
new share buyback plan and forecast upbeat fourth-quarter
revenue and profit.