US STOCKS-Wall St rises on stimulus bets as labor market rebound cools

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* Weekly jobless claims stall at recession levels
* Consumer spending rises 1% in August
* Airlines head higher on coronavirus aid hopes
* Tech heavyweights boost all three indexes
* Indexes up: Dow 0.11%, S&P 0.34%, Nasdaq 1.01%

(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Sagarika Jaisinghani
Oct 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on the
first day of the fourth quarter on Thursday as investors bet on
more fiscal stimulus after data showed a recovery in the labor
market was slowing.
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell to
837,000 in the week ended Sept. 26, but claims could rise again
over the next few weeks as businesses cut more jobs to ride out
the recession. Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were trading higher after
the Trump administration proposed a new stimulus bill to House
Democrats worth more than $1.5 trillion, which includes a $20
billion extension in aid for the battered airline industry.
Shares of American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O , Delta Air
Lines Inc DAL.N , United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O and
JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.O rose between 0.1% and 1.0%.
"Today it's all about the stimulus being passed or not,"
said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital
Partners in Pittsburgh.
Aggressive monetary and fiscal stimulus as well as a rally
in tech-related stocks powered a Wall Street rebound since a
coronavirus-driven crash in March.
In September, the benchmark index clocked its biggest
two-quarter increase since 2009 and the Nasdaq its best since
2000 with investors pouring into tech-related stocks such as
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O through July and
August.
Gains on Thursday were again led by the consumer
discretionary sector .SPLRCD , which includes Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O , and the information technology index .SPLRCT .
On the other hand, the energy index .SPNY tumbled another
2.7% after a 20% decline in the third quarter.
With the presidential election now less than five weeks
away, analysts have warned of higher volatility over the next
few weeks.
"Volatility is going to come back in a big way, as opposed
to the second quarter, when we were able to just forget
everything and pile money into the market," Forrest said.
At 10:05 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 0.11%, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 0.34% and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 1.01%.
Boeing Co BA.N rose 2.3% a day after Federal Aviation
Administration Chief Steve Dickson conducted a 737 MAX test
flight, a milestone for the jet to win approval to resume flying
after two fatal crashes. U.S.-listed shares of French-Italian chipmaker
STMicroelectronics STM.N jumped 7.4% after it saw a sharp rise
in automotive and microcontrollers demand in the third quarter,
setting it on course to top its 2020 forecast. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners about 1.6-to-1 on the
NYSE and the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded nine new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 41 new highs and 14 new lows.