US STOCKS-Wall St rises as focus turns to stimulus, corporate earnings

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* Weekly jobless claims decrease more than expected
* eBay, PayPal jump on upbeat quarterly earnings
* Qualcomm slips as chip supply constraints hold back sales
* Indexes up: Dow 0.52%, S&P 0.41%, Nasdaq 0.46%

(Updates to market open)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on
Thursday as investors looked to corporate earnings and signs of
progress on a pandemic-relief package after data suggested the
labor market was stabilizing.
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. A report on Wednesday showed U.S. private payrolls rebounded
more than expected in January. The government's closely watched
and comprehensive monthly employment report is due on Friday.
"You're seeing a little bit of sort of calmness or
consolidation after a big run-up a couple of days ago," said
Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth
Management in New York.
"The market is digesting earnings news and more importantly
the focus is on what type of agreement can come out of
Washington related to stimulus."
Nine of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in early trading
with financial .SPSY and technology .SPLRCT gaining the
most.
All the three major indexes have bounced back sharply this
week as investors monitored talks over the next round of fiscal
stimulus and as a recent buying frenzy driven by social media
appeared to stall following a bout of market volatility last
week.
President Joe Biden is open to narrowing the threshold for
Americans eligible to receive $1,400 checks as part of
coronavirus relief legislation, White House economic adviser
Jared Bernstein told the Washington Post on
Thursday. Videogame retailer GameStop Corp GME.N fell 10.1%, while
cinema operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC.N slipped
7.2% as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that before
she and financial market regulators took any action, they needed
to "understand deeply" what happened in the retail trading
frenzy in recent days. Concerns over heightened stock market valuations, raging
pandemic and new coronavirus variants have kept investors on
edge with attention turning towards earnings outlook from
corporate America to justify it.
U.S. companies are on track to post earnings growth for the
fourth quarter of 2020, data from Refinitiv showed on Wednesday,
which would defy expectations for profits to drop 10% due to the
pandemic. At 9:50 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 159.70 points, or 0.52%, at 30,883.30, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 15.86 points, or 0.41%, at 3,846.03, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 63.17 points, or 0.46%, at 13,673.72.
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. EBay shares jumped 8.6%, while PayPal gained
8.4%. Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O fell 8.5% after the chipmaker said
semiconductor supply constraints that have roiled the industry
contributed to first-quarter sales that slightly missed Wall
Street expectations. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.74-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.07-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 12 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 121 new highs and no new low.