US STOCKS-Wall St rallies for third day as investors focus on stimulus

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* Weekly jobless claims rise to record 3.28 mln
* Airlines surge on $58 bln industry aid package
* S&P 500 set for third straight session of gains
* Indexes: Dow +4.82%, S&P 500 +4.67%, Nasdaq +4.03%

(Updates to afternoon)
By Noel Randewich
March 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street rallied for a third
straight session on Thursday as record weekly jobless claims
came in below investors' worst fears and investors focused on an
unprecedented $2 trillion stimulus awaiting approval by the U.S.
House of Representatives.
The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment
benefits surged to 3.28 million last week as state-wide
lockdowns brought the economy to a halt and unleashed a wave of
layoffs. The median expectation of analysts polled by Reuters was for
1 million claims, but the top end of the forecast was as high as
4 million.
Expectations are high that the U.S. House of Representatives
will pass the stimulus measure to support distressed industries,
including airlines, after the Senate cleared the proposal.
It would flood the country with cash in an effort to stem
the crushing economic impact of an intensifying pandemic that
has killed about 1,000 and infected nearly 70,000 people in the
United States. The benchmark S&P 500 index was on track for three straight
day of gains for the first time since mid-February, before
coronavirus fears stopped Wall Street's 11-year bull market.
Since Monday, the S&P 500 has surged almost 15%, although it
remains down 24% from its Feb. 19 record high.
"It's encouraging to see people buying a day after a big up
day because we hadn't seen that in a month," said Randy
Frederick, vice president of trading & derivatives at Charles
Schwab. "That doesn't guarantee that the bottom is in, but it is
indicative of a bottoming process."
Delta Air Lines DAL.O jumped 5.2%, while Boeing BA.N
rose 14%, boosted by a $58 billion provision for the aerospace
industry in the latest aid bill. Boeing has surged over 90% in
the past four sessions.
Adding to upbeat sentiment, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell said the central bank stood ready to act "aggressively"
to shore up credit in the market on top of the unprecedented
policy easing announced on Monday. "He said the Fed is not going to run out of ammunition and
that the committee still has policy room for more action," said
Charalambos Pissouros, senior market analyst at JFD Group in
Cyprus.
"By saying that he raises the question - will they go for
negative interest rates?"
With macroeconomic indicators likely to worsen heading into
the second quarter as a breakdown in business activity and fears
of corporate defaults foreshadow a deep global recession, many
analysts expect more wild swings in markets.
The CBOE volatility index .VIX fell 4.9 points, but was
still near levels far above those in 2018 and 2019.
At 2:44 pm ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI had
jumped 4.82% at 22,222.22 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 4.67% to 2,591.13.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC soared 4.03% to 7,681.73.
The S&P utilities index .SPLRCU was the strongest among 11
sectors, jumping 7.2%.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
5.15-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.71-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 4 new highs and 13 new lows.