US STOCKS-Wall Street gets PayPal boost as Nasdaq erases 2020 declines

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* PayPal jumps on strong payments recovery forecast
* Lyft surges on revenue beat, cost cuts
* All 11 S&P 500 sectors log gains
* Millions more Americans file for jobless benefits
* Indexes up: Dow 1.24%, S&P 1.42%, Nasdaq 1.5%

(Updates to mid afternoon)
By Lewis Krauskopf
May 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street's indexes jumped on Thursday,
with the Nasdaq turning positive for the year, following a
clutch of upbeat earnings reports led by PayPal as investors
looked past more weak jobs data caused by the
coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors moved higher, led by energy .SPNY ,
materials .SPLRCM and financials .SPSY which have lagged
this year.
Shares of PayPal Holdings PYPL.O soared 13.9% and boosted
the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq after the company said it expects a
strong recovery in payments volumes in the second quarter as
social distancing drives more people to shop online.
Shares of media company ViacomCBS Inc VIAC.O and
ride-hailing firm Lyft LYFT.O also jumped after their
earnings, as a first-quarter reporting season that Refinitiv
estimates will show a 12% decline in earnings begins to wind
down. ViacomCBS shares rose 10.7% and Lyft shares climbed 22.0%.
Stocks have rebounded sharply since late March from the
coronavirus-fueled sell-off, helped by massive monetary and
fiscal stimulus. Investors are now watching efforts by a number
of states to spark their economies by easing restrictions put in
place to fight the outbreak.
“You are seeing incrementally some parts of the global
economy opening up again plus slightly better earnings," said
Eric Freedman, chief investment officer at U.S. Bank Wealth
Management.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 294.12 points,
or 1.24%, to 23,958.76, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 40.43 points,
or 1.42%, to 2,888.85 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
132.69 points, or 1.5%, to 8,987.08.
The Nasdaq turned positive for 2020 during the session,
after being down well over 20% for the year as of late March.
Data showed millions more Americans sought unemployment
benefits last week, suggesting layoffs broadened from
consumer-facing industries to other segments of the economy and
could remain elevated even as many parts of the country start to
reopen. The U.S. employment report for April is due on Friday.
“The market rightly or wrongly is just much more focused on
what that data looks like two months from now, not what that
data looks like right now,” Freedman said.
Investors were also encouraged by news that China's exports
unexpectedly rose in April for the first time this year as
factories raced to make up for lost sales due to the coronavirus
pandemic. The development of treatments for the coronavirus has been
watched closely by Wall Street as key for resuming economic
activity. Moderna Inc MRNA.O shares rose 10.1% after the
company sped up plans for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine and
said it expected to start a late-stage trial in early summer.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
3.72-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.68-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted nine new 52-week highs and no new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 53 new highs and seven new lows.