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* Main indexes gain after two straight days of losses
* Apple up on JPM's iPhone volume forecast raise, Cook's
comments
* Merck rises after promising data from cancer drug
* Indexes: Dow up 0.36%, S&P 500 up 0.50%, Nasdaq up 0.75%
(Updates to close)
By Noel Randewich
Sept 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks climbed on Monday, helped by
gains in Apple, Microsoft and Merck & Co, as investors set aside
worries about the U.S.-China trade war.
Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 2.4% after Chief Executive
Officer Tim Cook told a German daily that sales of the company's
newest iPhones were off to a strong start, while JP Morgan
raised its forecast for shipment volumes. Apple is struggling to
reverse shrinking iPhone sales amid tepid global demand for
smartphones. Also helped by a 0.9% rise in Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , the
S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT added 1.0%, leading other
sectors.
Sentiment on Wall Street got an additional boost after White
House trade adviser Peter Navarro dismissed reports that the
Trump administration was considering delisting Chinese companies
from U.S. stock exchanges as "fake news." Concerns related to those reports had sent the S&P 500
.SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC to a more than three-week low on
Friday.
"This idea of using different types of levers that impact
trade negotiations is something that we will get accustomed to,"
said Phil Blancato, chief executive officer of Ladenburg
Thalmann Asset Management in New York.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms Alibaba Group Holding
Ltd BABA.N and Baidu Inc BIDU.O rose 0.8% and 1.5%,
respectively. The next round of high-stakes trade talks between the
world's two largest economies is scheduled for October.
Wall Street's main indexes are on course to end September
with the weakest quarterly performance so far this year, rattled
by a host of factors including an escalation in U.S.-China trade
tensions, the inversion of an important part of the U.S. yield
curve and political turmoil in Washington.
Click here to view the interactive graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2n5vkTu
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 0.36% to end at
26,916.83 points, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.50% to
2,976.73.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.75% to 7,999.34.
For the month, the S&P 500 rose 1.7%, the Dow added 2.1% and
the Nasdaq gained 0.5%.
For the third quarter, the S&P 500 and Dow moved up 1.2%,
while the Nasdaq dipped 0.1%.
Merck & Co Inc MRK.N gained 1.5% as it presented promising
data for its Lynparza cancer drug, which it developed in
partnership with Britain's AstraZeneca PLC AZN.L . Newell Brands Inc NWL.O jumped 2.9% after SunTrust
Robinson Humphrey upgraded the household goods maker to "buy."
Investors this week will focus on economic reports,
including a key jobs report and the September ISM purchasing
managers index (PMI). August's PMI data showed a contraction in
the manufacturing sector.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.45-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.28-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 18 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 117 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 6.2 billion shares, compared to
the 7.2 billion average for the full session over the last 20
trading days.
Wall Street's third quarter performance interactive https://tmsnrt.rs/2n5vkTu
Wall Street's third quarter performance png https://tmsnrt.rs/2n60f29
PREVIEW-Third quarter could mark turning point in U.S. profit
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