US STOCKS-Wall Street edges higher on tech boost

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* Energy stocks drop as oil slides
* Weekly jobless claims stuck at higher levels
* FAANGS stocks mixed
* Indexes up: Dow 0.04%, S&P 0.09%, Nasdaq 0.45%

(Adds comment, details; updates prices)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
Sept 10 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 edged higher in volatile
trading on Thursday as investors cautiously bought heavyweight
tech-related stocks after a recent selloff while awaiting more
coronavirus fiscal aid amid growing evidence of a choppy
economic rebound.
Amazon.com AMZN.O rose 1.3% and Tesla Inc TSLA.O jumped
6%, supporting the Nasdaq's advance. Stay-at-home winners Apple
Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Netflix Inc NFLX.O
were marginally lower.
The NYSE FANG+TM Index .NYFANG , which includes the core
FAANG stocks, was up 1.1%.
"It's going to be a battle for the next couple of days from
investors who are trying to pick spots to get back into
technology and traders who are using some of these sharp rallies
to profit take," said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane
Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New
Jersey.
Wall Street's main indexes bounced on Wednesday from their
biggest three-day rout since March, as investors returned to
tech-focused stocks that are deemed insulated from the current
economic downturn.
The S&P tech index .SPLRCT rose 0.1% and consumer
discretionary .SPLRCD added 1%. Despite the recent pullback,
the tech index is up about 44% in 2020, far outperforming the
benchmark S&P 500's 13.5% rise in the same period.
Many market participants are also viewing the selloff as a
bout of turbulence rather than the start of a longer slide.
"If (the stock market) today closes up, even if they're
small gains, that's going to give more confidence back to Wall
Street participants to feel more comfortable to get back in,"
said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist at SlateStone
Wealth LLC in New York.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX fell further away from a
near three-month high hit at the start of a historically
tumultuous September. Investors have also remained cautious as
data paints a mixed picture of U.S. economic health.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled a
seasonally adjusted 884,000 for the week ended Sept. 5, matching
the number of applications received in the prior week as layoffs
and furloughs persisted across industries. A separate report showed U.S. producer prices rose slightly
more than expected in August as the cost of services increased
solidly, while underlying producer inflation continued to firm.
The U.S. Senate was set to vote later in the day on a
significantly scaled back Republican coronavirus relief bill in
what could be the final vote on fiscal aid in Congress before
the Nov. 3 presidential and congressional elections.
At 11:36 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 10.35 points, or 0.04%, at 27,950.82, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 3.20 points, or 0.09%, at 3,402.16. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 50.23 points, or 0.45%, at 11,191.80.
Energy stocks .SPNY dropped 1.2% as oil prices extended
losses after U.S. data showed a surprise build in crude
stockpiles last week and on forecasts for lower global oil
demand. O/R
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.06-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.20-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and one new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 36 new highs and 16 new lows.