US STOCKS-Wall Street rises as hopes rise for U.S. fiscal stimulus

* Pelosi says negotiators making progress on stimulus talks
* Weekly jobless claims dip below 800,000, but remain
elevated
* Tesla rises after fifth straight quarterly profit
* Coca-Cola up after results beat
* Indexes: Dow up 0.57%, S&P 500 up 0.53%, Nasdaq up 0.22%

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to early afternoon; new byline, adds NEW YORK dateline)
By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Shares on Wall Street gained on
Thursday in choppy trading, as investors cheered the prospect of
more fiscal stimulus to support a pandemic-damaged U.S. economy,
with more data pointing to a slowing labor market recovery.
Trading on Wall Street this week has been dictated by a
flurry of reports related to progress in the stimulus talks. The
CBOE Market Volatility index .VIX rose for the eighth time in
nine sessions, and was last up 2.8%.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reported progress in talks
with the Trump administration for another round of financial aid
and said legislation could be hammered out "pretty soon".
"The market remains highly sensitive to a fiscal stimulus
deal," said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S.
Bank Wealth Management.
"What we're concerned about is the labor market as we move
to the next couple of months. We get the roll-off of the
stimulus and the labor market remains suspect. That's why we're
looking for fiscal stimulus and the market is looking for fiscal
stimulus," he added.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have been
negotiating a relief bill near the $2 trillion mark, a sum
opposed by Senate Republicans who have expressed concern about
the federal deficit.
Also on Thursday, data showed the number of Americans filing
for state unemployment benefits last week dropped more than
expected to 787,000, but remained stubbornly high as support
from fiscal stimulus faded. At 2:02 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 164.06 points, or 0.58%, to 28,374.88, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 18.39 points, or 0.54%, to 3,453.95 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC added 26.11 points, or 0.23%, to 11,510.81.
Energy .SPNY and financials .SPSY rose 2.6% and 1.6%,
respectively, the steepest percentage gainers among the major
S&P sectors.
Investors will monitor the final presidential debate on
Thursday night, where Trump will take on Democratic challenger
Joe Biden who is ahead in national polls. Meanwhile, about a fifth of S&P 500 companies have reported
third-quarter results of which 84.1% beat earnings estimates,
according to IBES Refinitiv data.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O climbed 2.0% after the electric-car maker
reported its fifth consecutive quarterly profit on record
revenue of $8.8 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG.N fell 4.7% as it posted a
drop in quarterly profit, hurt by higher beef prices, delivery
costs and coronavirus-related expenses. Among blue-chip companies, Coca-Cola Co KO.N gained 1.3%
as it beat quarterly results expectations, while chemicals maker
Dow Inc DOW.N fell 0.6% even as it surpassed quarterly profit
estimates. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.82-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.72-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 17 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 48 new highs and 27 new lows.