US STOCKS-Wall Street gains as earnings season gathers steam

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* U.S. trade negotiators likely to visit China next week -
SCMP
* Micron jumps on report of Goldman upgrade
* Halliburton rises after Q2 profit beats estimates
* Tech stocks lead gains among major S&P sectors
* Indexes up: Dow 0.09%, S&P 0.21%, Nasdaq 0.53%

(Updates to open)
By Amy Caren Daniel
July 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, lifted by
technology companies, as investors eyed fresh U.S.-China trade
developments during a busy week of corporate earnings with
results from marquee names including Facebook and Amazon on tap.
Second-quarter earnings started off on a dour note last week
as results from major banks raised concerns about profit growth
in a low interest rate environment. Tech earnings on the other
hand have been robust, with Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and
International Business Machines IBM.N reporting profit beats.
"We are going into another round of earnings which is going
to set the tone for markets, and U.S.-China trade talks look
like they can go forward and that is a positive thing," said Kim
Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in
Pittsburgh.
The South China Morning Post reported U.S. trade negotiators
will likely visit China next week for their first face-to-face
talk with Chinese officials since the G20 meeting, when Trump
held off on fresh tariffs on Chinese goods. As earnings season progresses, profits at S&P 500 companies
are now estimated to rise about 1%, according to Refinitiv IBES
data, in a reversal from earlier expectations of a small drop.
About 30% of S&P 500 companies are set to report results
this week. Facebook Inc FB.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O and
Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , up between 0.1% and 1%,
are reporting between Wednesday and Thursday.
"I think their results are probably going to be fine, but
they will need to address their problems on impending
regulations and how they are going to channel that, so that it
doesn't impair their ability to grow money," Forrest said.
Investors will parse through company results to gauge the
impact that the trade war has had on corporate profits, to see
whether results are poor enough to persuade the Federal Reserve
to take strong action this year.
Hopes of an interest rate cut helped Wall Street's main
indexes recover from a slump in May and scale record levels.
On the earnings front, Halliburton Co HAL.N rose 7.1%, the
most among S&P 500 companies, after the oilfield services
provider's second-quarter profit beat analysts' estimates.
At 9:46 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 25.77 points, or 0.09%, at 27,179.97, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 6.17 points, or 0.21%, at 2,982.78. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 43.28 points, or 0.53%, at 8,189.77.
Technology companies .SPLRCT rose 0.91%, the most among
the major S&P sectors trading higher, and the Philadelphia chip
index .SOX gained 1.69%.
Semiconductor companies likely got a boost from news that
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow will host a meeting
with semiconductor and software executives on Monday to discuss
the U.S. ban on sales to China's Huawei Technologies HWT.UL .
Micron Technology Inc's MU.O shares, which rose 3%, were
also lifted by a report that Goldman Sachs upgraded its shares
to "buy".
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.50-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.45-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 14 new highs and 37 new lows.