US STOCKS-Wall Street climbs with focus on stimulus

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* Senate Republicans set to vote on more payroll funding
* Insurer Travelers up after profit beat
* P&G gains after FY sales forecast raise
* Netflix advances ahead of results
* Indexes up: Dow 0.63%, S&P 0.70%, Nasdaq 0.62%

(Updates to market open)
By Medha Singh and Shivani Kumaresan
Oct 20 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes rose on
Tuesday as investors hoped for more stimulus from Washington,
with Senate Republicans preparing to vote on a bill to help
small businesses hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin will also talk again on Tuesday, after
a 53-minute telephone conversation on Monday "continued to
narrow their differences" about the coronavirus aid package, a
Pelosi spokesman said on Twitter. "The stimulus package seems to be the major fixation for
investors right now — the idea of Republicans and Democrats
agreeing on the next payments going forward," said Rick Meckler,
a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
Uncertainty over the fiscal stimulus weighed on Wall
Street's main indexes on Monday and analysts expect market
turbulence to increase with only two weeks left until Election
Day.
Latest national opinion polls pointed to a victory for
Democratic challenger Joe Biden, which would mean a cooling in
global trade friction, but higher taxes for corporate America.
Meanwhile, the third-quarter earnings season has gathered
momentum. Of the 50 S&P 500 companies that have reported
results, 86% have topped expectations for earnings, according to
Refinitiv IBES data.
Property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos Inc TRV.N
gained 3.3% as it beat quarterly profit expectations, while
consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co PG.N advanced 1.9%
as it raised its full-year sales forecast. All 11 major S&P sector were up in early trading with
financials .SPNY tracking U.S. Treasury yields. US/
At 9:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 177.90 points, or 0.63%, at 28,373.32, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 23.91 points, or 0.70%, at 3,450.83. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 70.89 points, or 0.62%, at 11,549.77.
Netflix Inc NFLX.O dipped 0.2% ahead of its third-quarter
earnings report. International Business Machines Corp IBM.N edged past
estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday, bolstered by higher
demand for its cloud services. The company's shares, however,
fell 3.3% after it stayed away from issuing a current-quarter
forecast, citing economic uncertainty related to the pandemic.
The U.S. Justice Department and 11 states filed an antitrust
lawsuit against Alphabet Inc's GOOGL.O Google for allegedly
breaking the law in using its market power to fend off rivals.
Alphabet's shares were up 0.9% in morning trading. issues outnumbered decliners 4.23-to-1 on the NYSE
and 2.54-to-1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded six new 52-week highs and one new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 28 new highs and 12 new lows.