US STOCKS-Wall St inches up with tech shares, though jump in virus cases a concern

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* Biogen submits marketing application for Alzheimer's drug
* Allstate slips on $4 bln deal to buy National General
* Indexes up: Dow 0.1%, S&P 500 0.2%, Nasdaq 0.8%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By C Nivedita and Medha Singh
July 8 (Reuters) - U.S stocks were slightly higher in choppy
trading on Wednesday, supported by technology shares as early
signs of an economic rebound offset concern about further
lockdowns due to a jump in coronavirus cases across the country.
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O provided the
biggest boost to all three indexes. The technology index
.SPLRCT rose 0.9%.
The number of confirmed U.S. cases surpassed 3 million,
affecting nearly one of every 100 Americans. California, Hawaii,
Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas broke their
previous daily record highs for new infections. Investors have been weighing a string of upbeat economic
data including record job additions and a rebound in the service
sector in June, against the surge in U.S. coronavirus cases
recently, but the S&P 500 is still up about 40% from its March
closing low.
There still seems to be a focus on the reopenings rather
than the increase in cases, said Peter Cardillo, chief market
economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
"But there are warning signs out there... While I don't
expect this market to crash, it's overbought, and I think
investors at this juncture are playing with fire," he said,
noting the rise in safe-haven gold prices.
Markets also appeared to be in a wait-and-watch mode before
the beginning of the second-quarter earnings season, which kicks
off next week with reports from the big Wall Street banks.
Quarterly earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to
decline nearly 44% year-on-year, the steepest drop since the
2008 financial crisis, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 22.94 points,
or 0.09%, to 25,913.12, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 6.11 points,
or 0.19%, to 3,151.43 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
82.88 points, or 0.8%, to 10,426.77.
Biogen Inc BIIB.O jumped 4.2% after the company said it
submitted the marketing application for its experimental
Alzheimer's disease therapy, aducanumab. Allstate Corp ALL.N shares slipped as the U.S. insurer
said it would buy National General Holdings Corp NGHC.O for
about $4 billion, scaling up its auto insurance business.
National General shares surged 65.1%. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.06-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.04-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 92 new highs and 18 new lows.