US STOCKS-S&P 500 hovers near all-time high as banks, industrial rise

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* Growth stocks set to outperform value for the second week

* Honeywell gains as brokerages raise price targets

* Indexes: Dow up 0.28%, S&P up 0.14%, Nasdaq off 0.26% (Updates to market open)

April 9 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 paused on Friday after hitting an all-time high as economy-linked stocks including banks and industrials gained on optimism around strong U.S. economic growth.

Financial stocks rose 0.9%, more than any other S&P sector, with Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co rising between 0.8% and 1.1%.

The banks will kick off the first-quarter earnings season next week, and analysts expect profits for S&P 500 firms to have jumped about 25% year on year, the strongest performance for the quarter since 2018, according to Refinitiv IBES data.

“We have had a tremendous run recently and there’s some excitement about how strong corporate America’s earnings will be,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“It is a chance to justify the rallies that we have seen recently to new highs.”

Weaker-than-expected labor market data on Thursday eased inflation worries and validated the Federal Reserve’s accommodative stance, lifting the technology-heavy Nasdaq 1% higher and powering the S&P 500 to a record close.

President Joe Biden will release his first budget proposal to Congress on Friday, offering a long-awaited glimpse into a policy agenda that will mark a sharp departure from his predecessor, Donald Trump.

At 9:56 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 92.41 points, or 0.28%, at 33,595.98, the S&P 500 was up 5.92 points, or 0.14%, at 4,103.09, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 35.52 points, or 0.26%, at 13,793.79.

Technology and communication services stock, which house high-flying names, inched lower.

Still, the Russell 1000 growth index, which comprises mainly technology-related stocks, is set to outperform its value counterpart, made up of mostly financials and energy names, for a second consecutive week following the recent pullback in longer-dated Treasury yields.

“This week is a reminder that technology is not dead,” Detrick said.

“It’s still a group that has a lot of explosive growth and it’s a nice change for investors who felt some pain from tech’s under performance earlier this year.”

Bank of America’s weekly fund flow figures showed investors have pumped more money into equities over the past five months than in the last 12 years.

Honeywell gained about 2.2% as Jefferies and J.P. Morgan raised their price targets on the U.S. aero parts maker’s shares.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.87-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 31 new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 40 new highs and 19 new lows. (Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)