US STOCKS-Wall Street rebounds ahead of tech earnings, upbeat U.S. data helps

* U.S. stocks rebound after prior day's steep sell-off
* Pinterest soars after results, lifts social media cos
* Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook rise ahead of results
* Indexes up: Dow 1.24%, S&P 1.84%, Nasdaq 2.21%

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to afternoon; new byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on
Thursday as investors piled into technology heavyweights ahead
of their earnings reports, while upbeat domestic economic data
calmed widespread concerns about surging coronavirus cases.
The rebound came after a more than 3% slide a day earlier in
Wall Street's major indexes, underscoring heightened market
volatility ahead of the presidential election next week.
"It's a big day in technology today in anticipation of their
results," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at
Inverness Counsel in New York.
"The earnings season so far has resulted in significant
positive earnings surprises. We think that's helping to fuel
today's rally in anticipation of positive surprises from these
companies."
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and Alphabet Inc
GOOGL.O rose before their results, due after the closing bell.
All three companies have seen demand surge for their products
and services from people stuck at home during the pandemic.
Apple, one of the most actively traded stocks on Nasdaq,
jumped 4.6%.
Facebook Inc FB.O and Twitter Inc TWTR.N , which will also
report later in the day, jumped about 5% and 7%, respectively,
after Pinterest Inc PINS.N forecast a rebound in ad spending.
Shares of the image-sharing company soared more than 28%.
The NYSE FANG+TM Index .NYFANG jumped 3.2%. Communication
services .SPLRCS , materials .SPLRCM and technology .SPLRCT
rose the most among major S&P sectors.
Sentiment also got a boost from data showing the U.S.
economy grew at a record pace in the third quarter after the
government poured out more than $3 trillion of pandemic aid. A
separate report showed weekly unemployment claims fell last
week.
"It's positive data, but it's a little bit backward looking
because you have COVID-19 cases on the rise again which doesn't
really send a strong signal about the fourth quarter," said
Shawn Snyder, head of investment strategy at Citi Personal
Wealth Management in New York.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX has surged to a 15-week
high this week due to lack of fiscal stimulus, while the White
House coronavirus task force urged for aggressive measures to
curb the pandemic.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a comfortable lead
over President Donald Trump in national polls, but the race in
battleground states that will likely decide the election are
tighter than the national surveys. At 2:15 p.m. ET (1815 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average
.DJI rose 329.25 points, or 1.24%, to 26,849.2, the S&P 500
.SPX gained 60.3 points, or 1.84%, to 3,331.33 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC added 243.38 points, or 2.21%, to 11,248.24.
Coach owner Tapestry Inc TPR.N climbed 4% as it beat
quarterly profit estimates and forecast growth for the year as
demand for luxury handbags and apparel rebounded in China from
pandemic lows. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.12-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.83-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted four new 52-week highs and 10 new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 21 new highs and 66 new lows.