NEW YORK: US stocks gained ground on Thursday as investors piled into technology heavyweights ahead of their earnings reports, while upbeat economic data calmed worries about surging coronavirus cases.

The rebound from a more than 3% slide in Wall Street’s major indexes in the previous session underscored the heightened market volatility ahead of the presidential election next week.

Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc, which have seen a surge in demand for their products and services from people staying at home, rose between 1.5% and 3.4% ahead of their results after the closing bell.

Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc, which will also report later in the day, jumped about 5% and 7%, respectively, as Pinterest Inc forecast a rebound in ad spending. Shares of the image-sharing company soared more than 28%.

The NYSE FANG+TM Index jumped 2.4%. Communication services, materials and technology rose the most among major S&P sectors.

The CBOE volatility index has surged to a 15-week high this week due to lack of fiscal stimulus, while the White House coronavirus task force urged for aggressive measures to curb the pandemic.

At 12:41 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 99.39 points, or 0.37% to 26,619.34 and the S&P 500 gained 31.70 points, or 0.97% to 3,302.73. The Nasdaq Composite gained 157.39 points, or 1.43% to 11,162.26.—Reuters