US STOCKS-S&P 500 rides Microsoft, Amazon to record close above 4,000

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* Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rise
* Micron jumps after upbeat revenue forecast
* Indexes: S&P 500 +1.18%, Nasdaq up 1.76%, Dow up 0.52%

(New throughout, updates with official closing prices, volume
figures)
By Noel Randewich
April 1 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 surged on Thursday to its
first-ever close above the 4,000 mark, lifted by gains in
Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, as well as optimism about a
recovering U.S. economy.
Microsoft MSFT.O , Amazon AMZN.O , Alphabet GOOGL.O and
Nvidia NVDA.O jumped 2% or more, with those and other growth
stocks showing signs of awakening after lagging in recent weeks
behind so-called value stocks expected to outperform as the
economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
Google-parent Alphabet's 3.3% rally left it at its highest
close ever.
Data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for
unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week. However,
other data showed a measure of manufacturing activity soared to
its strongest level in more than 37 years in March, with
employment at factories the highest since February 2018.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.52% to end at
33,153.21 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 1.18% to
4,019.87.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC climbed 1.76% to 13,480.11.
With its latest record, the S&P 500 was up about 7% in 2021,
and it has gained 80% from its low in March 2020.
"We're still bullish for this year, and we think that with
stimulus, with the Fed committed to being dovish, with the
economy reopening due to more of the U.S. getting vaccinated,
overall you're going see corporate earnings do pretty well,"
said King Lip, chief investment strategist at Baker Avenue Asset
Management in San Francisco.
U.S. stock markets will close on Good Friday for the
holiday. For the shortened week, the S&P 500 rose 1.1%, the Dow
gained 0.25% and the Nasdaq added 2.6%.
Trading volume on U.S. exchanges was light at 10.5 billion
shares, compared with a 13 billion average over the last 20
trading days.
The Nasdaq remains about 5% below its Feb. 12 record high
close, still smarting after higher U.S. bond yields hurt
technology stocks.
Eight of the S&P 500 sector indexes rose, with technology
.SPLRCT , communication services .SPLRCL and energy .SPNY
gaining more than 2%.
Micron Technology Inc MU.O jumped 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 5.5% after it said it will invest $100 billion over three
years to meet rising chip demand. The CBOE volatility index .VIX slipped below 18 points for
the first time in 14 months, a level last seen before the
coronavirus-driven global financial market meltdown in March
2020.
Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N fell 0.9% 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 , whose shares tumbled 13.3%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
4.16-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.14-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 83 new highs and 14 new lows.