US STOCKS-Wall Street ends higher on hope that partial coronavirus stimulus deal may occur

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* Airlines rise after Trump's call for support
* Fed minutes show policymakers split on applying new
framework
* Indexes: Dow up 1.9%, S&P 500 up 1.7%, Nasdaq up 2%

(Updates close with volume, other details)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
Oct 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on
Wednesday as investors regained hope that at least a partial
deal on more U.S. fiscal stimulus may happen.
After abruptly calling off negotiations on a comprehensive
bill on Tuesday, President Donald Trump later that day urged
Congress to pass a series of smaller, standalone bills that
would include a bailout package for the airline industry
battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
Airline shares jumped, and United Airlines UAL.N rose
4.3%.
"The only reason we were down yesterday was the tweet from
President Trump, which he walked back last night. That's why the
market started off stronger and continued stronger. I think
there's full-blown expectations that some form of stimulus
agreement is going to occur sooner than later," said Michael
James, managing director of equity trading at Wedbush Securities
in Los Angeles.
Top White House officials downplayed the possibility of more
coronavirus relief, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disparaged
Trump for backing away from talks on a comprehensive deal.
Indexes held gains after the Federal Reserve released
minutes from its last policy meeting. The minutes showed U.S.
central bankers, having agreed unanimously in August on a broad
new approach to monetary policy, were divided in September over
how to apply their new principles in practice. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 530.7 points,
or 1.91%, to 28,303.46, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 58.5 points,
or 1.74%, to 3,419.45 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
210.00 points, or 1.88%, to 11,364.60.
Eli Lilly and Co LLY.N rose 3.4% after saying it had
submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
emergency use of its experimental COVID-19 antibody treatment.

With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, focus
later Wednesday may turn to a debate between Vice President Mike
Pence and Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls released on Tuesday showed
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden expanding his lead
over Trump in battleground Michigan and the two candidates
locked in a toss-up race in North Carolina ahead of the Nov. 3
election. "People are becoming more comfortable with the lead that
Biden has and focusing on the potential positives that would
come from a Democratic White House and not the stereotypical
(view of) negative for the stock market that was maybe in vogue
three months ago," James said.
Investors also are preparing to hear from companies soon on
the third quarter, with earnings expected to kick off next week.
Analysts expect earnings at S&P 500 companies to have dropped
about 21% in the quarter from a year ago, according to IBES data
from Refinitiv.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.77-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.32-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 40 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 125 new highs and 16 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 8.98 billion shares, compared
with the 9.79 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.