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* Weekly unemployment insurance claims decrease more than expected
* eBay and PayPal increase with optimistic quarterly earnings
* Qualcomm slips because chip supply restrictions hinder sales
* Rising indices: Dow 0.52%, S&P 0.41%, Nasdaq 0.46% (updates for the opening of the market)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
February 4 (Reuters) – The main Wall Street indices rose on Thursday, with investors looking at corporate profits and signs of progress in a pandemic relief package, after data suggested the job market was stabilizing.
The Labor Department report showed that 779,000 Americans filed for new unemployment insurance claims last week, down from 812,000 the week before, when authorities began easing the pandemic-related restrictions on companies.
A report on Wednesday showed that the US private payroll rebounded more than expected in January. The government’s comprehensive and attentive monthly employment report is due on Friday.
“You are seeing a little calm or consolidation after a big run a few days ago,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth Management in New York.
“The market is digesting news about earnings and, more importantly, the focus is on what kind of deal could come out of Washington related to the stimulus.”
Nine of the top 11 S&P sectors advanced at the start of trade, with finance and technology gaining more.
All three major indices rebounded strongly this week, with investors monitoring conversations about the next round of fiscal stimulus and the recent social media-driven shopping frenzy following a surge in market volatility last week.
President Joe Biden is open to reducing the limit for Americans eligible to receive checks for $ 1,400 as part of coronavirus relief legislation, White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein told the Washington Post on Thursday.
Video game retailer GameStop Corp fell 10.1%, while movie operator AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc fell 7.2%, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that before she and financial market regulators took to any extent, they needed to “deeply understand” what happened in the retail frenzy in recent days.
Concerns about rising stock market valuations, the violent pandemic and new variants of the coronavirus have kept investors alert, with attention focused on corporate America’s profit prospects to justify them.
American companies are on track to record profit growth for the fourth quarter of 2020, data from Refinitiv showed on Wednesday, which defies expectations of a 10% decline in profits due to the pandemic.
At 9:50 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 159.70 points, or 0.52%, at 30,883.30, the S&P 500 rose 15.86 points, or 0.41%, at 3,846.03, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 63.17 points, or 0.46%, to 13,673.72.
A wave of online shopping driven by the pandemic during the holiday season helped e-commerce company eBay Inc and the payment platform PayPal Holdings Inc the top quarterly earnings estimates. EBay’s shares were up 8.6%, while PayPal’s were up 8.4%.
Qualcomm Inc fell 8.5% after the chipmaker said the semiconductor supply restrictions that disrupted the industry contributed to first quarter sales, which were slightly below Wall Street expectations.
Early issues outnumbered declining rates by 1.74 to 1 on the NYSE and 2.07 to 1 on Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 12 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 121 new highs and no new low. (Reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)