US STOCKS-Wall St gains on tech rally, trade hopes rekindled

(Updates to late afternoon; changes dateline, byline)
* Trade hopes gain traction ahead of G20 summit
* Micron jumps after upbeat forecasts; chip stocks rise
* Crude prices lift energy stocks
* General Mills falls on disappointing sales
* Indexes up: Dow 0.20%, S&P 500 0.10%, Nasdaq 0.46%

By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - Technology shares led the S&P
500 and the Nasdaq higher on Wednesday after remarks by Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin rekindled hopes for a de-escalation of
U.S.-China trade tensions and brought buyers back from the
sidelines.
All three major U.S. stock indexes were up, though off
session highs.
Trade-sensitive industrial stocks, led by Boeing Co BA.N ,
provided the biggest lift to the Dow. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq
were set to snap three-day losing streaks, which were driven in
part by increasing pessimism as to whether a planned meeting
between President Donald Trump and China's president, Xi
Jinping, at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Japan would yield
any progress in the two country's protracted tariff dispute.
But hopes for a way forward were raised when Mnuchin said in
an interview on CNBC, "We were about 90% of the way there (with
a deal), and I think there's a path to complete this."
Trump later said it was "absolutely possible" to avoid
imposing additional tariffs on imported Chinese goods, but said
he was "very happy where we are now." "The markets are easily led by trade news," said Joseph
Sroka, chief investment officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta. "The
market anticipates that something positive will come out of the
G20 meeting this weekend."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 53.11 points,
or 0.2%, to 26,601.33, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.89 points, or
0.10%, to 2,920.27, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 36.20
points, or 0.46%, to 7,920.92.
A rise in crude prices LCOc1 boosted energy stocks
.SPNY . Energy and tech companies .SPLRCT were the biggest
percentage gainers among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500.
Chipmakers led the tech rally. The Philadelphia SE
Semiconductor index .SOX rose 3.4% after Micron Technology Inc
MU.O posted upbeat results and forecast a recovery in chip
demand. Micron's shares jumped 13.4%. Apple Inc AAPL.O shares were up 2.1% after the iPhone
maker confirmed that it bought self-driving startup Drive.ai
and after Trump suggested in an interview that the
European Union was out of line with its lawsuits against U.S.
tech firms, saying that the United States was the one that
should be taking action. EU antitrust regulators on Wednesday hit Broadcom AVGO.O
with demands that the chipmaker drop its exclusivity clauses
with TV and modem makers as part of its ongoing investigation.
Nevertheless, Broadcom's shares were up 2.0%
General Mills Inc GIS.N was among the biggest percentage
losers on the S&P 500, dropping 4.2% after the packaged food
company missed quarterly sales estimates, hit by lower snacks
demand in North America. In economic news, new orders for non-defense capital goods
rose more than economists expected in May, suggesting some
stabilization in business spending, which had shown signs of
weakness amid trade jitters and bloated inventories. But overall
orders for durable goods dropped, driven by a 28.2% plunge in
non-defense aircraft orders, partly due to Boeing's move to cut
production of its troubled 737 MAX aircraft.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.26-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.11-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and four new
lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 18 new highs and 81 new
lows.