US STOCKS-Wall St rises as tech selloff eases; U.S. Senate passes stimulus bill

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* Disney gains as California allows theme parks to reopen
* Banks stocks advance as yields rise on stimulus bill
* GameStop jumps after tapping Ryan Cohen to lead transition
* Indexes: Dow up 1%, S&P up 0.5%, Nasdaq flat

(Updates to market open)
By Shashank Nayar and Medha Singh
March 8 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow rose on Monday,
led by stocks poised to benefit the most from an economic
rebound as the U.S. Senate passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19
relief package, while heavyweight tech-related stocks clawed
back some losses.
President Joe Biden said he hoped for a quick passage of the
revised bill by the House of Representatives so he could sign it
and send $1,400 direct payments to Americans. Prospects of more government spending and faster economic
growth have stoked fears of a spike in inflation, sending the
benchmark 10-year Treasury yield to near one-year highs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, however, said the
package would fuel a "very strong" U.S. recovery and that she
did not expect the economy to run too hot because of the
increased spending. Most tech-related stocks, including Facebook Inc FB.O ,
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O , rebounded on Monday after being sold off in the past
three weeks on fears of higher interest rates after the recent
run-up in U.S. bond yields.
"While it's a 'buckle the seat belt' time for tech stocks,
we believe this sell-off has created a golden opportunity for
investors to own the secular tech winners for the next 3-5
years," said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.
Tech stocks are particularly sensitive to rising yields
because their value rests heavily on earnings in the future,
which are discounted more deeply when bond returns go up.
The Russell 1000 growth index .RLG that includes
technology stocks added about 0.4% in early trading, but still
underperformed a 1% rise for its counterpart value index .RLV
consisting of cyclical stocks such as financials and energy.
Hopes of more fiscal support and signs of faster economic
growth on speedy vaccine rollouts had lifted Wall Street's main
indexes to record highs last month, but worries that rising
inflation could result in a sudden tapering of monetary stimulus
have now prompted investors to dump equities. MKTS/GLOB
Materials .SPLRCM , industrials .SPLRCI and utilities
.SPLRCU rose the most among major S&P sectors. Technology
.SPLRCT and energy .SPNY dropped.
At 10:15 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 301.33 points, or 0.96%, to 31,797.63, the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 19.96 points, or 0.52%, to 3,861.90 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 1.84 points, or 0.01%, to 12,923.02.
Banks .SPXBK added about 0.8% as the yield on the
benchmark 10-year note US10YT=TWEB stood near a 13-month high,
while airlines .SPCOMAIR jumped about 3%.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX rose 1 point to 25.66. US/
Walt Disney DIS.N jumped about 3% as California health
officials set new rules that would allow Disneyland and other
theme parks, stadiums and outdoor entertainment venues to reopen
as early as April 1. GameStop Corp GME.N surged about 14% after the company
said it had tapped shareholder Ryan Cohen to lead a transition
to an e-commerce business.