US STOCKS-Wall Street at record highs as Democrats take control of Senate

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* Walgreens top gainer on Dow after profit beat
* Weekly jobless claims dip unexpectedly
* DXC jumps on $10 bln takeover offer from French rival
* Indexes up: Dow 0.9%, S&P 1.4%, Nasdaq 2.1%

(Updates to market open; adds details)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Jan 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street hit record levels on Thursday
as market participants bet on more pandemic aid under a
Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress to help the economy ride out a
steep downturn.
Economy-linked financials .SPSY jumped 2.2% while
industrial .SPLRCI and materials .SPLRCM sectors hovered
near record highs on expectations that President-elect Joe Biden
would line up a bigger fiscal package and boost infrastructure
spending. "You're seeing a reflation trade on the assumption that a
more progressive and aggressive fiscal stimulus packages could
be in the offing," said Keith Buchanan, portfolio manager at
GlobAlt in Atlanta.
Rate-sensitive bank shares .SPXBK gained 3.2%, tracking a
surge in the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield. US/
The S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT , up 2.2%, was set to more
than make up for its losses from a day earlier, when shares of
some of the biggest technology companies dropped on fears of
increased regulation.
The NYSE FANG+TM index .NYFANG , which includes the core
FAANG group of stocks, gained about 2%.
The Congress on Thursday certified Biden's election victory,
hours after hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters
stormed the U.S. Capitol in a harrowing assault on American
democracy that briefly weighed on markets. At 10:18 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 269.28 points, or 0.88%, to 31,098.68, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 53.75 points, or 1.43%, to 3,801.89 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 261.18 points, or 2.06%, to 13,002.01.
The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits
unexpectedly dipped last week, while staying extremely high, a
Labor Department report showed, with the job market recovery
appearing to stall as COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm the
country. Investors are now awaiting a comprehensive December jobs
report, which is expected on Friday.
DXC Technology DXC.N jumped 10.8% as France's IT
consulting group Atos ATOS.PA made a more than $10 billion
takeover approach for its U.S. rival, according to two sources
with knowledge of the matter. Electric-car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O jumped 4.2% to a
record open after RBC Capital Markets upgraded its stock rating
to "sector perform". Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA.O jumped 6%, leading
gains among Dow components .DJI , after it beat analysts'
estimates for adjusted quarterly profit, driven by higher sales
at its retail pharmacy stores and higher prescription volumes.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2-to-1 ratio on
the NYSE and by a 3-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 75 new 52-week highs and no new lows
while the Nasdaq recorded 352 new highs and five new lows.