US STOCKS-Tech stocks fuel Wall St rally as factory activity expands in August

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* Apple rises on reports of orders for 75 mln 5G iPhones
* Zoom surges after raising annual revenue forecast
* Walmart advances after unveiling membership plan details
* Indexes up: Dow 0.21%, S&P 0.33%, Nasdaq 1.03%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
Sept 1 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit new highs
on Tuesday with the tech-heavy index boosted by Apple and Zoom
Video, while better-than-expected U.S. manufacturing sector data
fueled optimism around a post-pandemic economic recovery.
Apple Inc AAPL.O gained 2.9%, rising for the second
straight day after its stock split took effect. A report also
said the company had asked suppliers to make at least 75 million
5G iPhones for later this year. Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM.O surged 38.6% after the
video-conferencing platform raised its annual revenue forecast
by more than 30% as it converted more of its huge free user base
to paid subscriptions. "There are limited options where you can buy growth, because
the country is slowly reopening and tech does the best in the
slow growth economy," said Thomas Hayes, managing member at
Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
ISM data showed U.S. factory activity expanded for the third
straight month to a reading of 56.0 in August, the highest since
November 2018. The figures follow encouraging manufacturing
surveys from China and Europe earlier in the day. However, employment continued to lag, according to ISM data,
supporting views that the labor market recovery was losing
momentum. Investors will keep a close eye on the monthly U.S.
jobs report due on Friday. Wall Street's main indexes recorded their fifth straight
monthly gain on Monday, riding on massive central bank support,
U.S. government aid and demand for tech-focused stocks.
While the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 have scaled all-time highs
recently, the blue-chip Dow is still about 3.5% below its
February peak.
"The biggest struggle for the economy is going to be getting
back to full employment the way you had it before," said Jimmy
Lee, chief executive officer of Las Vegas-based asset manager
Wealth Consulting Group.
Technology .SPLRCT , materials .SPLRCM and consumer
discretionary .SPLRCD stocks led gains among the major S&P
sectors.
Prospects that Senate Republicans will unveil a new
coronavirus relief bill next week also boosted sentiment.
U.S. politics will take center stage in the coming weeks.
Republican president Donald Trump, who is running for
re-election against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden,
has seen his polling gap with the former vice president narrow
recently. At 12:32 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 60.10 points, or 0.21%, at 28,490.15, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 11.69 points, or 0.33%, at 3,512.00. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 120.90 points, or 1.03%, at 11,896.36.
Walmart Inc WMT.N rose 5.4% after the retail giant
unveiled the perks of its new loyalty program, Walmart Plus.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O fell 2.3% after the electric-car maker
announced plans to raise up to $5 billion through a share sale
program a day after its 5-for-1 stock split. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.36-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and matched them on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 27 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 83 new highs and 31 new lows.