US STOCKS-Wall Street closes higher as new stimulus talks ease shutdown worries

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(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
Nov 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended in positive territory
on Thursday as fresh stimulus hopes buoyed investor sentiment
toward the end of a session fraught with worries over mounting
shutdowns and layoffs linked to spiraling COVID-19 infection
rates.
All three major stock indexes got a healthy boost after
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell had agreed to revive talks to craft a new fiscal
relief package.
"We've seen this playbook before, where investors flock to
the safety of tech and growth when the economy shows signs of
slowing down," said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at
LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina. "But everything
changes now that there's hope of the next stimulus plan."
"Clearly markets are bouncing on that optimism."
Even so, spiraling COVID-19 infection rates turned investors
toward market-leading growth stocks that have shown resiliency
to the pandemic.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX , which
thrived throughout the health crisis, handily outperformed the
broader market.
"In a COVID world, semis are a safer play as they're not
impacted as much due to shutdowns," Detrick added.
The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for
unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, the data
painting a grim picture of increasingly elevated layoffs as
spiking coronavirus cases and subsequent shutdowns continue to
hobble the labor market.
Record infection numbers have prompted schools and
businesses to close once again, thwarting the recovery of the
world's largest economy from the deepest recession since the
Great Depression. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
43.82 points, or 0.15%, to 29,482.24, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
14.06 points, or 0.39%, to 3,581.85 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 103.11 points, or 0.87%, to 11,904.71.
Third-quarter reporting season is nearing the finish line,
with 472 of the companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of
those, 84.5% have beaten consensus, according to Refinitiv data.
Macy's Inc M.N reported a 20% plunge in quarterly
same-store sales and the department store forecast a tough
holiday season. Chipmaker Nvidia Corp NVDA.O forecast a slight dip in data
center chip sales but the company beat quarterly revenue
expectations. L Brands Inc LB.N surged after posting
better-than-expected quarterly results and a 56% jump in
same-store sales. Tesla Inc TSLA.O shares rose for the third straight
session to touch a record high, riding the wave of its pending
inclusion in the S&P 500, announced on Monday.