US STOCKS-S&P 500 hits 4,000 mark on tech strength, reopening optimism

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* Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise
* Micron jumps after upbeat revenue forecast
* J&J shares slip on problem with COVID-19 vaccine batch
* Indexes up: Dow 0.19%, S&P 0.70%, Nasdaq 1.51%

(Updates to market open)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
April 1 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 on Thursday crossed the
4,000 mark for the first time, as technology shares, led by
chipmakers, gained following an upbeat earnings outlook by
Micron, while optimism about the U.S. economic growth lifted
sentiment.
Seven of the 11 S&P sectors rose, with technology .SPLRCT
and communication services .SPLRCL gaining more than 1.5%.
Increased vaccinations and massive fiscal stimulus are
powering a recovery in the labor market, which helped investors
shrug off latest data that showed a rise in the number of
Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week.
The closely-watched monthly jobs report on Friday could show
U.S. economy added 647,000 jobs last month after February's
379,000 rise.
"The data continues to give confidence that the earnings are
going to be revised higher," said Larry Adam, chief investment
officer at Raymond James.
"April is usually a pretty good month for the market
historically and I would expect that momentum to continue
especially as we see the economy strengthen."
Micron Technology Inc MU.O advanced 4.8% after the
chipmaker forecast fiscal third-quarter revenue above Wall
Street estimates due to higher demand for memory chips, thanks
to 5G smartphones and artificial intelligence software.
U.S.-listed shares of rival Taiwan Semiconductor TSM.N
rose 3.8% on its plan to invest $100 billion over the next three
years to meet the rising chip demand. The technology-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.5% as "high flying"
stocks including Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Facebook Inc
FB.O added between 1.1% and 2.3% after underperforming last
month on concerns over elevated valuations.
The S&P 500 had hit an intraday high on Wednesday as
President Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion-plus plan to rebuild
the world's largest economy.
Biden's "American Jobs Plan" would put corporate America on
the hook for the tab as the government creates millions of jobs
building infrastructure, such as roads, tackles climate change
and boosts human services like care for the elderly.
At 9:42 a.m. ET, the S&P 500 .SPX was up 27.80 points, or
0.70%, at 4,000.69, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 79.34 points, or 0.24%, at 33,060.89.
Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N fell 0.8% after the drugmaker said
it had found a problem with a batch of the drug substance for
its COVID-19 vaccine being produced by Emergent Biosolutions
EBS.N . Emergent's shares tumbled 12%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.89-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 3.20-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 33 new highs and three new lows.