US STOCKS-Wall St ends higher amid upbeat earnings, economic data

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* Weekly jobless claims decrease more than expected
* EBay, PayPal jump on upbeat quarterly earnings

(Updates to close)
Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended solidly higher on
Thursday and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted record closing highs
after another batch of upbeat earnings and data suggesting the
labor market may be stabilizing.
The Dow and S&P 500 rose for a fourth straight day, with
investor hopes of further progress on a pandemic-relief package
also boosting the market. Democrats in the U.S. Senate were
poised on Thursday to take a first step toward the ultimate
passage of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief
proposal. The number of Americans filing new applications for
unemployment benefits decreased further last week, according to
the Labor Department's report.
"There's news around the vaccines, the economic data is a
little bit better, earnings have been pretty good across the
board and there's still talk of a $1.9 trillion stimulus
package. So all of those things are good for Wall Street, and
that's why we're seeing the market continue to rally," said Paul
Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management in
Chicago.
Stronger-than-expected results so far in the fourth quarter
have driven up analysts' expectations, and S&P 500 companies are
now on track to post earnings growth for the quarter instead of
a decline as initially expected. A pandemic-driven surge in online shopping during the
holiday season helped e-commerce firm eBay Inc EBAY.O and
payment platform PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL.O top quarterly
earnings estimates. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
332.2 points, or 1.08%, to 31,055.8, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
41.57 points, or 1.09%, to 3,871.74 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 167.20 points, or 1.23%, to 13,777.74.
The major indexes have bounced back sharply this week also
as a recent buying frenzy driven by social media appeared to
stall following a bout of market volatility last week.
Shares of videogame retailer GameStop Corp GME.N and other
recent favorites of retail investors fell again on Thursday.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said that she and
financial market regulators needed to "understand deeply" what
happened in the recent retail trading frenzy before taking any
action. Investors will be watching closely the U.S. government's
monthly employment report due out Friday.
According to a Reuters poll of economists, payrolls likely
increased by 50,000 jobs in January after declining by 140,000
in December.