US STOCKS-Wall St extends recent gains amid upbeat earnings, economic data

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* Weekly jobless claims decrease more than expected
* EBay, PayPal jump on upbeat quarterly earnings
* Indexes up: Dow 0.9%, S&P 500 0.9%, Nasdaq 0.9%

(Updates to afternoon trading)
Feb 4 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were higher on Thursday,
extending recent gains after another batch of upbeat earnings
and data suggesting the labor market may be stabilizing.
Hopes of further progress on a pandemic-relief package also
boosted 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 Labor Department's report showed 779,000 Americans filed
new applications for unemployment benefits last week, lower than
812,000 in the prior week, as authorities started to loosen
pandemic-related restrictions on businesses. The government's closely watched and comprehensive monthly
employment report, due on Friday, is also expected to show an
addition of 50,000 jobs in January after a sharp drop in
December. "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.
The Dow and S&P 500 were on track for a fourth straight day
of gains.
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.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 276.65 points,
or 0.9%, to 31,000.25, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 32.95 points,
or 0.86%, to 3,863.12 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
119.62 points, or 0.88%, to 13,730.16.
Videogame retailer GameStop Corp GME.N fell 36.3%, while
cinema operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC.N slipped
20.0% as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that she and
financial market regulators needed to "understand deeply" what
happened in the recent retail trading frenzy before taking any
action. Stronger-than-expected results so far in the fourth quarter
have driven up expectations, and the S&P 500 companies are 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. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.32-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.61-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 22 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 224 new highs and 2 new lows.