US STOCKS-Tech boost, trade optimism lead Wall Street higher

(Updates to early afternoon)
* Micron jumps after upbeat results, lifts chip stocks
* Tech boosts S&P; energy stocks track oil gains
* Mnuchin says U.S., China were close to trade deal - CNBC
* General Mills falls on disappointing sales
* Indexes up: Dow 0.34%, S&P 0.23%, Nasdaq 0.63%

By Shreyashi Sanyal
June 26 (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Wednesday, as
technology shares gained on the back of Micron's upbeat results,
while comments from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin fueled
hopes that the United States and China were making progress in
their trade talks.
"We were about 90% of the way there (with a deal) and I
think there's a path to complete this," Mnuchin said in an
interview to CNBC. Market participants are hoping for a speedy resolution of
differences between the two sides as their bitter trade war
takes a toll on global growth.
President Donald Trump said earlier in the day it was
"absolutely possible" he would emerge from a meeting with
Chinese leader Xi Jinping with a deal that would keep him from
imposing tariffs he had threatened to put on China. Trump is expected to meet with Xi at the G20 summit in Japan
this weekend. It will be the first time the two leaders have had
a face-to-face meeting since trade talks between their countries
collapsed in May.
"The tariff war remains a major headwind for the global
economy," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA in
London.
"I'm optimistic that we'll see progress at the G20, at least
enough to delay further tariffs being imposed which is surely a
positive for markets."
Micron Technology Inc MU.O jumped 13.2% after reporting
better-than-expected quarterly results and lifted the
Philadelphia Semiconductor index .SOX 3.50% higher.
The company said it had resumed some shipments to Chinese
telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd HWT.UL and
still expected demand for its chips to recover later this year.
Tech stocks .SPLRCT were up 1.60%, while the
trade-sensitive industrial index .SPLRCI rose 0.47%.
At 12:55 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 90.24 points, or 0.34%, at 26,638.46 and the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 6.71 points, or 0.23%, at 2,924.09.
The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 49.97 points, or 0.63%,
at 7,934.69 and was helped by gains in shares of Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O .
Among other gainers, the energy sector .SPNY jumped 2.1%
as oil prices rose after an outage at a major refinery on the
U.S. East Coast and on industry data that showed U.S. crude
stockpiles fell more than expected. O/R
Capping gains on the S&P 500 was a 1% drop in the healthcare
sector .SPXHC , weighed by losses in Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N ,
Pfizer Inc PFE.N and Merck & Co Inc MRK.N .
The benchmark index has gained 6% so far in June, hitting a
record high last week, largely on hopes that the Federal Reserve
would cut interest rates to counter the impact of a U.S.-China
trade war.
However, stocks fell steeply on Tuesday after the Fed
chairman pushed back on pressure from Trump to cut rates.
Still, markets fully expect a rate cut in July and see a 25%
possibility of a half-point move.
The biggest decliner among S&P 500 companies were General
Mills Inc's GIS.N shares, which slipped 4.8% after the food
packaging company missed quarterly sales estimates. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.37-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and three new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 16 new highs and 76 new lows.