US STOCKS-Apple and Amazon drive rally on Wall Street

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* Apple jumps ahead of Tuesday event
* Twitter rises after Deutsche Bank upgrades to "buy"
* White House calls for limited COVID-19 relief bill

(Updates to close)
By Noel Randewich
Oct 12 (Reuters) - Wall Street ended sharply higher on
Monday, fueled by expectations of a coronavirus relief package
and by a rally in Amazon, Apple and other technology stocks
ahead quarterly earnings season.
Apple Inc AAPL.O jumped ahead of an event on Tuesday, when
it is expected to unveil its newest iPhones. Amazon AMZN.O rallied ahead of its annual Prime Day
shopping event on Oct. 13 and 14. Microsoft MSFT.O also
jumped, helping lift the S&P 500 information technology index
sharply.
The S&P 500 was about 1% below its record closing high from
Sept. 2, nearly recovering from most of a 9% pullback last
month.
"Apple is crushing it. There's some euphoria around the
name," said Phil Blancato, chief executive of Ladenburg Thalmann
Asset Management in New York. "The market leaders are once again
the tech names, supported by the fact that the economy continues
to expand."
Optimistic sentiment dominated after the Trump
administration on Sunday called on Congress to pass a
stripped-down coronavirus relief bill as negotiations on a
broader package ran into resistance. "It looks like the administration wants a deal done before
the election," said Brian Battle, director of trading at
Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. "Now it's up to
the Republican Senate to figure out how big the number is going
to be."
Many investors view Democratic candidate Joe Biden as more
likely to raise taxes, and for months have seen a second term
for Trump, who favors deregulation, as better for the overall
stock market.
However, with growing expectations of a Democratic win in
next month's presidential election, investors are increasingly
pointing to potential benefits of a Biden presidency, such as
greater infrastructure spending and less global trade
uncertainty.
Betting odds aggregated by RealClearPolitics suggest bettors
see a 67% chance Biden will win and a 33% chance for Trump, the
greatest gap so far between the two candidates.
With the Oct. 15 presidential debate officially canceled,
Trump plans to travel to key battleground states this week as
his doctor declared he was no longer a transmission risk for the
novel coronavirus. Results from big U.S. banks will be in focus this week, with
JPMorgan & Co JPM.N and Citigroup C.N set to report on
Tuesday.
Overall, analysts expect third-quarter earnings for S&P 500
companies to fall 21% from a year earlier, smaller than a 31%
slump in the second quarter.
"Earnings are expected to be negative, but I think most
people would say, 'Yes, but we set the bar so low that we will
probably beat Q3 numbers the way we beat Q2 numbers'," said Sam
Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA in New York.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
250.03 points, or 0.87%, to 28,836.93, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
56.93 points, or 1.64%, to 3,534.06 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 296.32 points, or 2.56%, to 11,876.26.
The S&P 500 energy index .SPNY fell as oil prices dropped
on easing supply worries. O/R
Twitter Inc TWTR.N jumped after Deutsche Bank upgraded the
social media company's shares to "buy" on expectations of
continued growth in 2021.