US STOCKS-Tech leads Wall St higher as virus fears rise

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* U.S. coronavirus cases top 7 million
* Costco Wholesale drops on high COVID-19 costs
* Cruise operators jump after Barclays upgrade
* Indexes up: Dow 0.40%, S&P 0.68%, Nasdaq 1.27%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Devik Jain
Sept 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on
Friday, led by technology-related stocks, but were still on
track for their longest weekly losing streak in a year as fears
about the coronavirus' impact on the economy dented investor
sentiment.
Shares of tech mega-caps including Facebook Inc FB.O ,
Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Apple Inc
AAPL.O and Netflix Inc NFLX.O , which tend to outperform
during economic uncertainty, climbed between 0.5% and 2.3%.
The information technology index .SPLRCT jumped another
1.4% as investors ditched value-linked stocks .IVX on signs of
a slowdown in the broader economic recovery.
All the three major U.S. stock indexes were on course for
their fourth straight week of declines - their longest weekly
losing streak since August 2019.
Volatility .VIX has also shot up as investors looked for
clarity on more Congressional stimulus ahead of the Nov. 3
presidential election.
"You've had this nice recovery through the summer, and
coming into the fall, the economy is just a little bit more
vulnerable, particularly with a lot of the stimulus that we had
starting to taper off now," said Mike Dowdall, portfolio manager
at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago.
At 1:03 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 107.27 points, or 0.40%, at 26,922.71, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 22.08 points, or 0.68%, at 3,268.67, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 135.07 points, or 1.27%, at 10,807.34.
The S&P industrials sector .SPLRCI added 0.9% as data
showed new orders for key U.S.-made capital goods jumped in
August, while a 1.1% slide in energy stocks .SPNY put them on
course for one of their worst weeks since the coronavirus-driven
crash in March. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL.N , Norwegian Cruise Line
NCLH.N and Carnival Corp CCL.N jumped more than 6% after a
report said Barclays upgraded their stock to "overweight".
Boeing Co BA.N gained 4.3% after Europe's chief aviation
safety regulator said the planemaker's grounded 737 MAX could
receive regulatory approval to resume flying in November and
enter service by the end of the year. Costco Wholesale Corp COST.O fell 1.9% as the warehouse
chain recorded high coronavirus-related costs for the second
straight quarter. Novavax Inc NVAX.O jumped 10.6% after the drugmaker
launched a late-stage trial of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine
in the UK. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1.49-to-1 on the NYSE
and 2.31-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 15 new highs and 35 new lows.