US STOCKS-Wall St gains as U.S. states start to reopen

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* Apple slips on report of iPhone production delay
* Caterpillar drops after rating downgrade
* Energy stocks track drop in oil prices
* BOJ pledges unlimited bond buying
* Indexes up: Dow 0.85%, S&P 0.99%, Nasdaq 1.14%

(Updates to open)
By C Nivedita
April 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock markets rose on Monday as
more states prepared to lift coronavirus-induced curbs and
investors geared up for the busiest week of quarterly earnings
reports, including from tech titans Apple and Microsoft.
The risk-on sentiment propped up the U.S. benchmark 10-year
Treasury yield US10YT=RR for a second straight session,
lifting the rate-sensitive financial index .SPSY by 2.2%.
Technology stocks .SPLRCT were also the top boosts for the
three main indexes.
Wall Street's fear gauge .VIX slipped for the fourth day
to hit its lowest level in more than seven week. US/
Colorado, Mississippi, Minnesota, Montana and Tennessee were
set to join several other states in reopening businesses this
week, despite disapproval from health experts as business
shutdowns put millions out of work across the country.
Although trillions of dollars in stimulus have helped the
S&P 500 .SPX recover nearly 30% from March lows, analysts say
more gains may be capped with the economic damage growing,
unless there is progress on treatments for the disease.
"There will certainly be a tsunami of negative news that
will come crashing down on markets and investors. That is
consensus. We have that assumption baked in," said Art Hogan,
chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.
"What we don't know is what the world looks like on the
other side of this, and how much of the potential economic
damage will be mitigated by the historic policy response."
With the Bank of Japan rolling out more stimulus on Monday,
focus this week will be on the Federal Reserve's meeting ending
on Wednesday, although expectations are low for more easing by
the U.S. central bank.
At 10:24 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 203.28 points, or 0.85%, at 23,978.55, the S&P 500 .SPX
was up 28.22 points, or 0.99%, at 2,864.96. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 98.14 points, or 1.14%, at 8,732.66.
About 173 companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report
quarterly earnings this week, including Apple AAPL.O ,
Amazon.com AMZN.O , Microsoft MSFT.O , Boeing BA.N , Ford
F.N , General Electric GE.N and Chevron CVX.N .
Overall, analysts expect a decline of nearly 15% in
first-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies, with profits for
the energy sector estimated to have slumped 68%.
Apple Inc AAPL.O slipped 0.3% as a report said the company
was delaying the production ramp-up of its flagship iPhones
coming later this year by about a month. Caterpillar Inc CAT.N fell 1.1% and was the biggest
decliner among Dow constituents as Morgan Stanley downgraded the
heavy equipment maker to "underweight".
Energy stocks .SPNY dropped 0.6% as oil prices plunged yet
again on concerns over scarce storage capacity. O/R
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.01-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 4.07-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and four new lows.