Wall St. rebounds after selloff; results boost Facebook

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Thursday, buoyed by data showing the U.S. economy grew as expected in the fourth quarter, following a recent selloff triggered by concerns over emerging markets.

Facebook Inc shares jumped 16 percent to $61.96, boosting the Nasdaq index which rose more than 1 percent. The social media company delivered its strongest revenue growth in two years on Wednesday, beating analysts' estimates.

Despite the day's gain, the S&P 500 was still down more than 3 percent for the month. Investors have been concerned that recent bold efforts by central banks in emerging economies to stabilize their currencies may not be enough to staunch an exodus of funds from those markets.

"The worries about emerging markets could continue for several weeks if we don't see some real stabilization," said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research in Texas, Austin.

"There are going to be intermittent stable days like today but things could easily turn."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 67.75 points, or 0.43 percent, to 15,806.54, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 12.8 points, or 0.72 percent, to 1,787 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 49.46 points, or 1.22 percent, to 4,100.894.

Visa Inc shares rose 2 percent to $221.45 after the world's largest credit and debit card company reported a 9 percent rise in quarterly profit as more people used its cards.

Google Inc shares rose 2.6 percent to $1,136.56 a day after Lenovo Group <0992.HK> said it would buy the internet search giant's Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion.

Data showed U.S. gross domestic product grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday, in line with expectations.

Separate data showed the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but the underlying trend suggested the labor market continued to heal.

Central banks around the world stepped in again as emerging market currencies declined. The Russian rouble hit record lows against the euro on Thursday, and currencies in South Africa and Hungary hit multi-year troughs in the latest wave of an emerging market asset sell-off threatening global economic stability. India's finance ministry said the country would take any steps necessary to ensure financial market calm.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)