US STOCKS-Techs shine, Nasdaq up over 2 pct and energy falls

(Updates to midday, changes byline)

By Cal Mankowski

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as investors snapped up technology bellwethers, including Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and a stronger dollar eased investor worries about high energy costs and inflation.

Shares of Apple and BlackBerry device maker Research In Motion Ltd (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research)(RIMM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) helped drive the Nasdaq up more than 2 percent.

As tech shares gained, energy companies' stocks fell, a trend aided by disappointing quarterly results from oil company Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Crude oil futures for June fell $2.56, sinking below $111 per barrel. The S&P index of energy shares dropped 3.6 percent.

The dollar rose to a five-week high against the euro, knocking commodity prices lower a day after the Federal Reserve had said it was worried about rising inflation expectations.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Fed cut its benchmark fed funds rate by one-quarter point to 2.0 percent, a reduction that was in line with the market's expectations..

"It has been a traditional inverse relationship over time that as crude and commodities weaken, people gravitate toward the tech group, which is still out of favor," said Ned Riley, chief executive of Riley Asset Management, in Marshfield, Massachusetts.