US STOCKS-Wall St wraps up its best June in decades as G20 convenes

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* S&P 500, Dow post best June in decades
* Investors eye Trump-Xi meeting at G20 summit in Japan
* Banks rise on clearing Fed's final stress test
* Consumer spending, inflation data support Fed rate cut
* Indexes up: Dow 0.28%, S&P 500 0.57%, Nasdaq 0.48%

(Updates to market close)
By Stephen Culp
NEW YORK, June 28 (Reuters) - Wall Street advanced in heavy
trading on Friday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow closing the book
on their best June in generations, ahead of much-anticipated
trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit now underway in Japan.
All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground at the
close of the week, month, quarter and first half of the year,
during which time the U.S. stock market has had a remarkable
run.
The S&P 500 had its best June since 1955. The Dow posted its
biggest June percentage gain since 1938, the waning days of the
Great Depression.
From the start of 2019, after investors fled equities amid
fears of a global economic slowdown, which sent stock markets
tumbling in December, the benchmark S&P 500 jumped 17.3%, its
largest first-half increase since 1997.
"The market came to the realization that the world is not
going to end," said John Ham, financial adviser at New England
Investment and Retirement Group in North Andover, Massachusetts.
"Also, (Federal Reserve chair) Powell did a 180 since (the
Fed's) last (interest) rate hike, which has put wind in our
sails in the first half of the year."
Trump expressed hopes that his meeting with Xi at the G20
summit will be productive, but said he had not made any promises
about a reprieve from escalating tariffs. "Everybody is focused on the Trump/Xi meeting, and most
investors are hoping for a ceasefire," Ham added. "At this point
it's just a question of how much of a ceasefire we get."
"They're two strong leaders who want to save face. They both
want to walk away from it claiming victory."
Financial stocks led the gains in the S&P 500 and the Dow
after the big U.S. banks passed the Federal Reserve's "stress
test," with the central bank giving the companies a clean bill
of health. The S&P 500 Bank index .SPXBK gained 2.4%.
Trading volume spiked amid the annual restructuring of the
Russell indexes, traditionally one of the largest trading days
of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 73.38 points,
or 0.28%, to 26,599.96, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 16.84 points,
or 0.58%, to 2,941.76 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
38.49 points, or 0.48%, to 8,006.24.
All 11 major sectors in the S&P 500 ended the session in
positive territory.
Financials .SPSY , energy .SPNY and tariff-vulnerable
industrials .SPLRCI were the biggest percentage gainers.
Shares of Apple Inc AAPL.O dropped 0.9% following its
announcement that design head Jony Ive is leaving the company.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that the iPhone
maker would move its Mac Pro production to China from the United
States. Constellation Brands Inc STZ.N reported
better-than-expected quarterly results and raised its full-year
guidance due to healthy beer demand, sending its shares up 4.6%.
In economic news, consumer spending rose moderately in May
and prices edged higher, implying a slowdown in economic growth
and benign inflation pressures, providing the Fed rationales for
a possible interest rate cut in July. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
2.84-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.66-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 84 new highs and 51 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.26 billion shares, compared
with the 7.11 billion-share average for the full session over
the last 20 trading days.