US STOCKS-Stimulus hopes set to lift Wall St as jobless claims stay elevated

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* Weekly jobless claims stall at recession levels
* Consumer spending rises 1% in August
* Airlines head higher on coronavirus aid hopes
* Pepsi rises after strong annual profit forecast
* Futures up: Dow 0.68%, S&P 0.82%, Nasdaq 1.42%

(Adds comments, updates prices)
By Devik Jain and Sagarika Jaisinghani
Oct 1 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes were set to
jump on the first day of the fourth quarter on Thursday as
investors remained hopeful of a new coronavirus fiscal aid
package, while data showed weekly jobless claims hovered at
recession levels.
The Trump administration has proposed a new stimulus bill to
House Democrats worth more than $1.5 trillion that includes a
$20 billion extension in aid for the battered airline industry,
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Wednesday.
Shares of American Airlines Group Inc AAL.O , Delta Air
Lines Inc DAL.N , United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O and
JetBlue Airways Corp JBLU.O rose between 1.5% and 3.3% in
premarket trading.
"Today it's all about the stimulus being passed or not,"
said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital
Partners in Pittsburgh.
Optimism around more fiscal support and a slate of
better-than-expected data helped Wall Street's main indexes jump
on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 clocking its best two-quarter
gain since 2009.
But with the presidential election less than five weeks away
and the domestic economy still reeling from the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, analysts have warned of higher volatility
over the next few weeks.
"Volatility is going to come back in a big way, as opposed
to the second quarter, when we were able to just forget
everything and pile money into the market and move on," Forrest
said.
Data on Thursday showed consumer spending rose a
better-than-expected 1.0% in August. A separate report showed the number of Americans filing new
claims for jobless benefits fell to 837,000 in the week ended
Sept. 26, but stalled at higher levels, suggesting the labor
market rebound was cooling as government spending diminishes.
Focus now turns to September data on the manufacturing
sector due at 10 a.m. ET and the Labor Department's
comprehensive jobs report scheduled for release on Friday.
Tech mega-caps including Apple Inc AAPL.O , Nvidia Corp
NVDA.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O ,
which tend to rise at a time of economic uncertainty, added
between 1.4% and 2.0%.
At 8:39 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 187 points, or
0.68%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 27.5 points, or 0.82%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 161.75 points, or 1.42%.
Boeing Co BA.N rose 2.6% a day after Federal Aviation
Administration Chief Steve Dickson conducted a 737 MAX test
flight, a milestone for the jet to win approval to resume flying
after two fatal crashes. PepsiCo Inc PEP.O gained 1% after it forecast full-year
profit above estimates as consumers bought more of its snacks
such as Doritos and Cheetos, while staying indoors due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. U.S.-listed shares of French-Italian chipmaker
STMicroelectronics STM.N jumped 6.9% after it saw a sharp rise
in automotive and microcontrollers demand in the third quarter,
setting it on course to top its 2020 forecast. Shares of Solid Biosciences Inc SLDB.O more than doubled
in value as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted a
clinical halt placed on a trial of its experimental gene therapy
for a muscle-wasting disorder.