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* S&P 500, Dow set to snap three-week losing streak
* Trump to meet Chinese vice premier at 2:45 p.m. ET
* Apple hits record high on trade, Wedbush PT bump
* Indexes up: Dow 1.84%, S&P 500 1.84%, Nasdaq 2.01%
(Updates market action, adds comments)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 11 (Reuters) - Wall Street rose for the third straight
session on Friday, as investors expected top-level trade talks
between the United States and China to result in a partial trade
deal and delay planned U.S. tariff increases.
Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O hit a record high and were the
biggest boost to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, while the technology
sector .SPLRCT was headed for its best day in five weeks.
President Donald Trump said the trade negotiations were
going well, and he would meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He later
in the day. The top-level discussions enter their second day on
Friday. "The President seems to indicate that there is a possibility
of an interim trade deal," said Rick Meckler, a partner at
Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
"The thought is that there will be some conciliatory moves
from both sides, as news earlier in the week had investors
worried that these talks might be moving in the wrong
direction."
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes looked set to break a
three-week losing streak on optimism that the world's top two
economies could cool off their row before more U.S. tariffs kick
in next week.
Investors also moved into cyclical sectors such as
financials .SPSY , ahead of the third-quarter earnings season
set to begin with banks reporting next week.
The S&P 500 bank index .SPXBK jumped 3%, on track for its
best day in a month, on expectations that strength in mortgage
banking and cheap valuations could provide support to some of
the biggest U.S. lenders. However, analysts see S&P 500 earnings dropping 3.2%
year-on-year, marking the first decline since 2016, according to
IBES data from Refinitiv.
Bets for another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve
fell amid data showing a rise in consumer sentiment for the
month of October. Chipmakers with a sizeable exposure to China rose in early
trading, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX
jumping 2.8%.
Apple rose 2.1% as Wedbush raised its price target, citing
confidence in the company's new video streaming service.
At 11:37 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 488.82 points, or 1.84%, at 26,985.49, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 54.18 points, or 1.84%, at 2,992.31 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 159.43 points, or 2.01%, at 8,110.21.
The industrial sector .SPLRCI gained 2.6%, boosted by a
17.7% surge in shares of Fastenal Co FAST.O after the
industrial distributor beat quarterly profit expectations.
Defensive utilities .SPLRCU was the only sector trading in
the red, while consumer staples .SPLRCS and real estate stocks
.SPLRCR posted the smallest gains, suggesting an uptick in
risk appetite.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 4.18-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 5.33-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 25 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 41 new highs and 31 new lows.