US STOCKS-Wall St climbs as Cisco, Disney jump after results

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Cisco set for best day in eight months
* Disney rises after smaller-than-expected loss
* Three major U.S. stocks indexes up about 0.8% each

(Updates to market open)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Nov 13 (Reuters) - Wall Street gained on Friday as Disney
and Cisco's upbeat results brought the focus back to corporate
earnings at the end of a volatile trading week that saw record
surges in coronavirus cases and increased hopes of a working
vaccine.
Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O and Walt Disney Co DIS.N were
the top gainers among 30 Dow components, helping the blue-chip
index rise 0.8%.
The network gear maker jumped 6.3% as it gained from a
work-from-home driven surge in demand, while Disney rose 2.2% as
its rapidly growing streaming video business, and a partial
recovery at its theme parks limited its quarterly loss.
"We are finishing an extremely strong earnings season with
an exclamation point on Disney's impressive earnings," said Ryan
Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte,
North Carolina.
"Corporate America is still optimistic about the future and
that's helping stocks recover, along with positive vaccine news
earlier this week."
The third-quarter earnings season is in its final stretch
with about 90% of S&P 500 companies having reported so far,
according to Refinitiv IBES data. Overall profit is expected to
fall 7.8% from last year, a significant improvement from a 21.4%
slump forecast on Oct. 1.
Wall Street's major indexes broadly fell on Thursday as U.S.
coronavirus cases jumped and investors weighed how fast an
effective vaccine would be rolled out.
More than a dozen U.S. states reported a doubling of new
COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks, with Chicago's mayor
issuing a month-long stay-at-home advisory on Thursday.
Positive data from a late-stage vaccine development earlier
this week lifted demand for sectors that usually benefit from an
upswing in the economy, such as financial and energy stocks,
putting the S&P 500 .SPX and Dow .DJI on track for weekly
gains.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC , however, is headed for a
weekly decline as investors booked profits in market-leading
technology stocks, which have benefited from a stay-at-home
environment.
At 09:42 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
rose 238.36 points, or 0.82%, to 29,318.53, and the S&P 500
.SPX gained 28.46 points, or 0.80%, to 3,565.47. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC gained 98.56 points, or 0.84%, to 11,808.15.
Cisco's shares helped the tech sector .SPLRCT rise by
0.8%, providing the biggest boost to the S&P 500 index.
All major S&P sectors were higher with materials .SPLRCM ,
industrials .SPLRCI and energy .SPNY gaining about 1% each.
Applied Materials Inc AMAT.O rose 4.7% after the chip-gear
maker forecast current-quarter revenue and profit ahead of
expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
5.4-to-1 ratio, while a 3.8-to-1 ratio favored advancers on the
Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted two new 52-week highs and no new low, and
the Nasdaq Composite recorded 39 new highs and four new lows.