US STOCKS-Wall Street rebounds as focus shifts to White House race

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* Estee Lauder rises after results beat
* Nielsen up on plans to sell unit for $2.7 bln
* Tech mega-caps bounce from steep selloff on Friday
* Indexes up: Dow 0.8%, S&P 0.9%, Nasdaq 1.1%

(Updates to market open)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Nov 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street's major indexes bounced back
on Monday after their steepest weekly loss since March as
investors geared up for an event-packed week centered around the
U.S. presidential election.
Market participants expect short-term trading turmoil and
major long-term policy shifts related to taxes, government
spending, trade and regulation depending on whether President
Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger Joe Biden wins the
White House race.
Biden is ahead in national opinion polls, but races are
tight in battleground states that could tip the election to
Trump. Analysts said the outcome most likely to shake equity
markets in the near term would be no immediate outcome at all on
Tuesday night. "Traders are trying to position themselves to the idea that
just having a result will be good for the market," said Rick
Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New
Jersey.
Investors betting on a Biden administration, which is
expected to deliver a massive fiscal stimulus and promote green
energy, have fueled a rally in solar stocks, industrials and
small-cap names in recent weeks. On the other hand, JP Morgan has listed Bank of America
BAC.N , Wells Fargo WFC.N and Citigroup C.N in its "Trump
basket" of stocks. The S&P banks index .SPXBK added 0.6%.
The S&P 500 ended a turbulent week at near six-week lows on
Friday after quarterly reports from technology mega-caps failed
to impress and on surging coronavirus cases in the United States
and Europe.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX , known as Wall Street's
fear gauge, inched lower on Monday after ratcheting up to near
five-month highs last week.
Focus this week will also be on the Federal Reserve's
two-day policy meeting, the monthly jobs report and earnings
from about a quarter of the S&P 500 companies, including
chipmaker Qualcomm QCOM.O , carmaker General Motors GM.N and
insurer American International Group Inc AIG.N .
At 09:45 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 225.94 points, or 0.85%, to 26,724.90 and the S&P 500
.SPX gained 29.13 points, or 0.89%, to 3,299.09. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 116.27 points, or 1.07%, to 11,027.86.
Among the biggest supports to the S&P 500 were Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , all
of which rose between 0.8% and 1.3% after falling sharply in the
previous session.
All major S&P sectors were higher, with technology .SPLRCT
and consumer staples .SPLRCS leading gains.
Estee Lauder Cos Inc EL.N rose 5.8% after the cosmetics
company beat estimates for quarterly results, benefiting from
strong Chinese demand and a surge in online orders for its
skincare products. Market research firm Nielsen Holdings Plc NLSN.N gained 7%
on plans to sell its consumer goods data unit for $2.7 billion
to private equity firm Advent International.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
4-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.3-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted three new 52-week highs and two new lows;
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 22 new highs and 83 new lows.