US STOCKS-Wall Street rebounds after two-day decline; Netflix slides

* Netflix falls as subscriber growth slows
* Verizon shares fall after Q1 results
* Indexes up: Dow 0.78%, S&P 500 0.69%, Nasdaq 0.76%

(Adds market pricing to mid-afternoon)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street rallied on
Wednesday, rebounding from a two-day decline, as a tilt toward
stocks poised to benefit from a recovering economy offset
Netflix Inc's NFLX.O sell-off after its disappointing results.
Intuitive Surgical Inc ISRG.O surged 9.9% to an all-time
high as its results trounced estimates. The maker of robotic
surgical systems vied with Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Tesla Inc
TSLA.O for much of the session as the biggest contributor to
the S&P 500's .SPX upside.
Shares of Netflix fell 7.2% after the world's largest
streaming service said slower production of TV shows and movies
during the pandemic hurt subscriber growth in the first quarter.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose, with communication
services .SPLRCL , led by Netflix, and the defensive utilities
.SPLRCU sectors falling. Economically sensitive value stocks
rose 1.0%, outpacing the 0.5% gain in growth as seen by the
Russell 1000 indexes.
"You take Netflix out of today's equation, it's simply a
broad-based rally," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at
TD Ameritrade, adding technology shares still had room to run.
The VIX .VIX , CBOE's market volatility index, slid below
18, suggesting the market in days to come could be range-bound
while also shrugging off a rebound in COVID infections, he said.
Analysts expect S&P 500 companies to post first-quarter
earnings growth of 30.9% from a year earlier, Refinitiv IBES
data shows. Netflix's results dashed some expectations but
technology remained a hot spot.
"Investors feel more confident of the earnings growth
prospects for technology," said Sam Stovall, chief investment
strategist at CFRA Research in New York. "They would rather
gravitate toward the sure thing, which right now is tech
stocks."
By 2:40 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 263.26 points, or 0.78%, to 34,084.56; the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 28.49 points, or 0.69%, at 4,163.43; and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC added 104.20 points, or 0.76%, at 13,890.46.
Verizon Communications Inc VZ.N dropped 0.3% after it lost
more wireless subscribers than expected in the first quarter.
Shares of T-Mobile US Inc TMUS.O and AT&T Inc T.N rose.
U.S. railroad operator CSX Corp CSX.O fell 4.4% after it
missed estimates for first-quarter profit, hurt by frigid polar
vortex temperatures, ongoing pandemic disruptions and higher
fuel costs.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
3.49-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.33-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 79 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 60 new highs and 52 new lows.