US STOCKS-Wall Street gains as trade tensions ease

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* Trump predicts swift end to trade war with China
* Boeing rises as FAA sees approval of 737 MAX soon
* All major S&P sectors trading higher
* Foot Locker, Autodesk fall as quarterly profit disappoint
* Indexes up: Dow 0.65%, S&P 0.62%, Nasdaq 0.86%

(Updates to open)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
May 24 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks posted broad-based gains on
Friday, ahead of a long weekend, as sentiment was buoyed by
optimistic comments by President Donald Trump that the
protracted trade war with China could soon end.
Trump said on Thursday that Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
HWT.UL could be included in the trade deal. However, no
high-level talks have been scheduled since the last round of
negotiations in Washington two weeks ago. The U.S. President will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi
Jinping at the G20 meeting next month in Japan. Earlier this week, while Washington temporarily relaxed its
ban on Huawei, there were reports that it was planning a similar
ban on another Chinese firm, making investors worry that such
moves would have a lasting effect on the global technology
supply chain.
"I don't see enormous amounts of positive news out there
although there is optimism about the trade discussions," said
Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for
Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
Technology stocks .SPLRCT , which bore the brunt of the
Thursday's slump, rose 1.05%, boosted by gains in heavyweights
Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp MSFT.O .
Tariff-sensitive industrials .SPLRCI added 0.70%, helped
by a 2.5% gain in the shares of Boeing co BA.N . Reuters
reported the Federal Aviation Administration expects to approve
Boeing's 737 MAX jet to return to service as soon as late June.

"Investors are assessing opportunities from a value
perspective especially in the tech sector where trade talks have
put pressure," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines
Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
"The trade talks are not going as smoothly as one would have
liked, but there is going to be some short covering as well."
At 9:44 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 166.89 points, or 0.65%, at 25,657.36. The S&P 500 .SPX was
up 17.61 points, or 0.62%, at 2,839.85 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 65.24 points, or 0.86%, at 7,693.52.
Analysts said trading could be volatile and volumes were
likely to be thin as market participants geared up for the
Memorial day holiday on Monday.
Markets shrugged off data that showed new orders for
U.S.-made capital goods fell more than expected in April,
further evidence that manufacturing and broader economy were
losing steam. The daily exchanges between the United States and China have
kept investors on edge, putting the S&P 500 index .SPX on
track to post its biggest monthly decline since the December
sell-off. The benchmark index is now 4% below its all-time high
hit on May 1.
Among other stocks, Foot Locker Inc FL.N plunged 16.9%,
the most on the S&P, after the footwear retailer missed
quarterly profit and same-store sales estimates.
Among the gainers on the S&P, Total System Services Inc
TSS.N jumped 11.4% after Bloomberg reported Global Payments
Inc GPN.N has held preliminary tie-up talks with the payment
solutions provider. Global Payments' shares rose 5.9%.

Autodesk Inc ADSK.O fell 4.7% after the software maker
reported quarterly earnings below expectations.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.95-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 3.94-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 33 new 52-week highs and three new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 18 new highs and 24 new lows.