US STOCKS-Wall St recovers on Big Tech gains, upbeat economic data

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* Tapestry jumps after earnings beat estimates
* Pinterest soars after results, lifting social media cos
* Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook rise ahead of results
* Indexes up: Dow 0.5%, S&P 0.9%, Nasdaq 1.1%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks gained ground on Thursday
after a sharp pullback a day earlier as investors piled into
technology heavyweights ahead of their earnings reports, while
upbeat economic data overshadowed worries about surging
coronavirus cases.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O , which have seen a surge in demand for their products
and services from people staying at home during the pandemic,
rose between 0.6% and 2.3% ahead of their results after the
closing bell.
Social media companies Facebook Inc FB.O and Twitter Inc
TWTR.N , which also report later in the day, jumped about 5%
each, riding on Pinterest Inc's PINS.N upbeat forecast for
sales growth on healthy rebound in ad spending. Shares of the image-sharing company soared over 33%.
Communication services .SPLRCS , materials .SPLRCM and
technology .SPLRCT rose the most among major S&P sectors.
Sentiment got a further lift after data showed the U.S.
economy grew at a record pace in the third quarter as the
government poured out more than $3 trillion worth of pandemic
relief.
A separate report showed weekly unemployment claims fell
more than expected in the latest week. "It's positive data but it's a little bit backward looking
because you have COVID-19 cases on the rise again which doesn't
really send a strong signal about the fourth quarter," said
Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal
Wealth Management in New York.
"It's encouraging that we've seen a noticeable recovery but
not sure if it tells us the path from here."
The CBOE volatility index .VIX hovered near 15-week highs
as the White House coronavirus task force urged for aggressive
measures to curb the spread of the disease and on anxiety over
the outcome of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a comfortable lead
over President Donald Trump in national polls, but the race in
battleground states that will likely decide the election are
tighter than the national surveys. Stalled efforts in Washington over fresh stimulus and an
alarming rise in COVID-19 cases globally have put the S&P 500
and Dow on course for their worst week since March.
At 10:53 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 138.93 points, or 0.52% to 26,658.88 and the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 29.16 points, or 0.89% to 3,300.19. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC gained 117.38 points, or 1.07%, to 11,122.25.
Coach owner Tapestry Inc TPR.N climbed 4% after it beat
estimates for quarterly earnings and forecast growth for the
year as demand for luxury handbags and apparel rebounds in China
from pandemic lows. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2-to-1 ratio and by a 1.3-to-1 ratio on Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and 10 new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 65 new lows.