US STOCKS-Wall St climbs on hopes of outbreak peaking, Sanders suspending White House bid

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* Top Democrats back emergency business funds
* Insurers jump after Bernie Sanders suspends presidential
bid
* Energy leads gains among major S&P 500 sectors
* Indexes up: Dow 2.44%, S&P 2.27%, Nasdaq 1.87%

(Updates early afternoon)
By Uday Sampath Kumar and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 8 (Reuters) - Wall Street rose on Wednesday on hopes
the coronavirus outbreak in the United States was close to its
peak, with health insurers boosted by Democratic presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign.
UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH.N , Anthem ANTM.N and Cigna
CI.N jumped between 4% and 7%, and the healthcare index
.SPXHC provided one of the biggest boosts among the 11 major
S&P 500 .SPX sectors.
Sanders' embrace of a Medicare for all healthcare policy
would have essentially abolished private insurance and had cast
a shadow on healthcare stocks for months. The news added to early gains after President Donald Trump
said the United States might be getting to the top of the
"curve" in relation to the outbreak, even as New York and
several other states posted their highest number of daily
virus-related fatalities. "The stock markets are forward looking, so there's
anticipation that, hopefully sooner rather than later, the death
count will be less than anticipated," said Marc Pfeffer, chief
investment officer at CLS Investments in Westchester County, New
York.
"I'd like to think that the bottom has been put in, but we
can't say for sure. The conversations are now starting to move
towards the reopening of the economy."
The benchmark S&P 500 is down nearly 20% from its record
high in mid-February, despite big gains early this week, as
measures to contain the virus brought the U.S. economy to a
virtual halt.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O and Boeing Co BA.N supplier Spirit
AeroSystems SPR.N became the latest companies to furlough
workers.
Top U.S. Democrats in Congress said on Wednesday they would
back the Trump administration's request for $250 billion more in
aid for small businesses if it includes additional money for
hospitals, local governments and food assistance.
Early gains were led by the energy index .SPNY , which rose
over 3%, as oil stocks tracked crude prices higher and risk
appetite was boosted by the prospect of more fiscal stimulus.
At 12:33 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 552.74 points, or 2.44%, at 23,206.60, the S&P 500 was up
60.32 points, or 2.27%, at 2,719.73 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 147.54 points, or 1.87%, at 8,034.80.
Corporate earnings season starts next week with the major
Wall Street banks, and companies are expected to outline more
drastic measures to bolster dwindling cash reserves.
"Investors are bracing themselves for a terrible earnings
season and are going to try to look for clues on what businesses
will see more normalized operations," said Yung-Yu Ma, chief
strategy officer at BMO Wealth Management in Portland.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 5.73-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 4.23-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 2 new 52-week highs and no new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 3 new highs and 14 new lows.