US STOCKS-Wall St advances as earnings, economic data beat expectations

(Removes non-functional company code from story)
* U.S. adds China's Huawei to trade blacklist
* Walmart, Cisco gain after earnings beats
* Housing starts, jobless claims beat expectations
* Treasury yields rise, lifting financials
* Indexes up: Dow 0.94%, S&P 1.09%, Nasdaq 1.11%

By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - Wall Street extended its rally
in afternoon trading on Thursday as upbeat earnings and strong
economic data put investors in a buying mood, with technology
companies leading the charge.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were up about 1%,
bringing the bellwether S&P 500 to within 2% of an all-time high
reached on April 30.
While the escalating U.S.-China tariff war continued to be a
concern for market participants, upbeat quarterly results and
data pointing to a strong U.S. economy helped ease trade-related
jitters.
Walmart WMT.N rose 1.9% after its first-quarter results
beat analyst expectations.
Cisco Systems CSCO.O jumped 7.2% and shares were on track
for their biggest percentage gain since February 2016 after
better-than-expected quarterly results. On the economic front, groundbreaking on new U.S. homes
increased more than expected in April, according to the Commerce
Department, as declining interest rates provided support to the
struggling housing sector. The S&P 1500 Homebuilding index .SPCOMHOME was up 1.4%.
In a separate report from the Labor Department, the number
of Americans applying for unemployment fell more than expected
last week.
"Outside of the trade conflict, we're seeing healthy
earnings, good valuations and signs of economic growth
re-accelerating," said David Carter, chief investment officer at
Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York. "However, the trade conflict
will be the key driver going forward."
Washington placed Huawei Technologies Co on a blacklist
which bans it from acquiring components and technology from U.S.
firms without prior approval. "This may be a precursor to a continued and larger trade
conflict," Carter added.
Shares of Huawei suppliers Qorvo Inc QRVO.O , Skyworks
Solutions Inc SWKS.O , Qualcomm Inc QCOM.O , Xilinx Inc
XLNX.O and Micron Technology Inc MU.O were all trading lower
on the news.
The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX was down
1.6%.
Electric automaker Tesla Inc TSLA.O dropped 1.3% following
safety agency reports that the Autopilot feature was engaged
during a fatal crash in Florida in March. Ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies UBER.N and Lyft
Inc LYFT.O were enjoying a third day of gains after spending
much of their post-debut trading days in negative territory.
Their shares were up 4.4% and 3.9%, respectively.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 241.74 points,
or 0.94%, to 25,889.76, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 31.19 points,
or 1.09%, to 2,882.15 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
87.01 points, or 1.11%, to 7,909.16.
All 11 major sectors in the S&P 500 were trading in positive
territory, with materials .SPLRCM and interest rate-sensitive
financials .SPSY seeing the largest percentage gains as
Treasury yields rose on upbeat economic data. A mostly upbeat first-quarter earnings season is beginning
to wind down, with 457 S&P 500 companies having reported. Of
those, about 75% have beaten profit expectations, according to
Refinitiv data.
Analysts now expect first-quarter earnings growth of 1.4%, a
significant improvement over the 2% loss expected on April 1.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.63-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.55-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 51 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 87 new highs and 59 new lows.