US STOCKS-Wall Street gains as Trump boosts hopes of stimulus

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* Pelosi seeks comprehensive stimulus deal
* Weekly jobless claims inch lower but remain elevated
* IBM jumps on infrastructure services unit's spin-off plan
* Indexes up: Dow 0.4%, S&P 0.7%, Nasdaq 0.5%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
Oct 8 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Thursday as
comments by U.S. President Donald Trump fueled hopes of fresh
fiscal aid, while data underscored the view that the labor
market recovery was struggling to gain momentum.
Two days after calling off negotiations on a comprehensive
bill, Trump said some discussions were ongoing with Democrats
about boosting support for U.S. airlines and providing Americans
with $1,200 stimulus checks. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said
legislation to help airlines was a matter of national security
and could only move through Congress with guarantees of work
continuing on the comprehensive deal. The Dow Jones airlines index .DJUSAR was up 0.8%,
extending recent gains.
"We're clearly being pushed around by the prospect of
getting further fiscal stimulus. That's entirely the driver.
It's been going on since this summer," said Art Hogan, chief
market strategist at National Securities in New York.
"The market is just reacting to every utterance of where we
stand on fiscal policy."
Data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new
claims for jobless benefits drifted lower last week but signaled
the labor market was making little headway in getting millions
of people back on the job after being out of work due to
COVID-19 disruptions. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 98.79 points,
or 0.35%, to 28,402.25, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 24.39 points,
or 0.71%, to 3,443.84 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
53.95 points, or 0.47%, to 11,418.55.
Strategists say investors are focusing on stimulus while
also beginning to digest the prospect of Democratic presidential
nominee Joe Biden winning the Nov. 3 election.
Biden appeared to lead Trump among likely voters in Florida
and the two were locked in a tight race in Arizona, according to
Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls released on Wednesday. International Business Machines Corp IBM.N rose 5.4% after
saying it was splitting itself into two public companies,
capping its years-long effort to diversify away from its legacy
businesses to focus on high-margin cloud computing. Eaton Vance Corp EV.N surged 48.0% and was on course for
its best day ever after Morgan Stanley MS.N agreed to buy the
asset manager for about $7 billion in a cash-and-stock deal.
Shares of Morgan Stanley gained 0.6%. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
3.56-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.91-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 58 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 111 new highs and 9 new lows.