US STOCKS-Wall Street pauses at record highs after Biden bounce

* Weekly jobless claims at elevated levels
* Growth stocks outperform value names
* United Airlines slips on fourth straight quarterly loss
* Indexes: Dow and S&P flat, Nasdaq up 0.48%

(Adds comment; updates share prices)
By Devik Jain and Medha Singh
Jan 21 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes hovered near
record highs on Thursday as investors counted on more pandemic
relief and speedy vaccine rollouts under the Biden
administration to support the economy after data showed a
weakening labor market recovery.
The number of Americans filing new applications for
unemployment benefits dipped to 900,000 last week, but still
remained stubbornly high as the COVID-19 pandemic tears through
the nation, raising the risk that the economy shed jobs for a
second straight month in January. "It's still the realization that the disappointment in the
employment is not going away anytime soon and that we're not out
of the woods from the economic point of view," said Ryan
Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte,
North Carolina.
At 11:53 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
fell 15.14 points, or 0.05%, to 31,173.24 and the S&P 500 .SPX
gained 1.89 points, or 0.05%, to 3,853.74.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 64.99 points, or 0.48%,
to 13,522.24, boosted by a jump in shares of technology
heavyweights Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O ahead of their earnings reports in the
coming weeks.
It follows Netflix Inc's NFLX.O blowout results on
Wednesday that revitalized the "stay-at-home" beneficiaries,
adding $262 billion in overall market capitalization to the
FAANG group of stocks.
In a reversal of the trend earlier this month, the Russell
1000 growth index .RLG , which includes mega-cap technology
stocks, is far outperforming the Russell 1000 value index .RLV
this week.
"Investors are going to realize that technology names are
still where a lot of impressive earnings growth is coming from
and those shares could hold up well because they've
underperformed for the last couple of months," Detrick added.
President Joe Biden is expected to launch an array of
initiatives during his initial days in office, including ramping
up testing and vaccine rollouts. Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and
Republicans in the Congress signaled a willingness to work on
Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan that would enhance jobless
benefits and provide direct checks to households. Communication services .SPLRCL , consumer discretionary
.SPLRCD and technology .SPLRCT were the only S&P sectors in
green.
Energy .SPNY , financial .SPSY and industrial .SPLRCI
stocks, which have helped the S&P 500 rally 14% since the Nov. 3
presidential election, fell between 0.7% and 2.6%.
With valuations near a 20-year high, corporate results could
present an important test of whether the stock market rally has
run ahead of fundamentals. Earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to rise by 24% in
2021 after falling 15% in 2020, as per Refinitiv data as of Jan.
15.
United Airlines Holdings Inc UAL.O dropped 7% after
posting a fourth straight quarterly loss due to the COVID-19
pandemic but said it aims to cut about $2 billion of annual
costs through 2023. Ford Motor Co F.N jumped 9% extending gains for a second
straight day after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the
U.S. automaker's stock.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.6-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.6-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 270 new highs and eight new lows.