US STOCKS-Indexes climb on fresh hope of U.S.-China trade deal

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* Trump to meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday
* China willing to reach agreement with U.S. - Xinhua
* Apple rises as brokerage sees higher iPhone demand
* Indexes up: Dow 0.5%, S&P 500 0.6%, Nasdaq 0.5%

(Updates to late afternoon)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday on
hopes that top-level U.S.-China trade talks would yield at least
a partial deal, while a rise in Apple's shares also boosted the
market.
Wall Street's main indexes moved higher after President
Donald Trump tweeted he would meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He
on Friday for further trade talks. Separately, Liu said Beijing was willing to reach an
agreement with Washington to prevent any further escalation in
the trade war, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
A senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said U.S. and
Chinese negotiators were working towards an "early harvest" of
confidence-building agreements, including one to avoid currency
manipulation. "I guess there's still some hope that something happens
here," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth
Management in Birmingham, Alabama.
"But there seems to be an acceptance that this thing may not
be finished. The negotiations could have less of a short-term
impact on the market."
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.2%, lifting the technology sector
.SPLRCT by 0.6%, after Longbow Research upgraded the company's
stock to "buy", citing higher iPhone 11 demand.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 119.55 points,
or 0.45%, to 26,465.56, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 16 points, or
0.55%, to 2,935.4 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 39.27
points, or 0.5%, to 7,943.01.
Stock markets have been rankled in recent weeks by weak
economic indicators showing a contraction in U.S. manufacturing
and a bleak reading on business activity, bolstering bets of
another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve to combat a
slowdown.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. consumer prices were unchanged
in September, while underlying inflation retreated. Among other stocks, Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N fell after
the carrier forecast disappointing current-quarter profit.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
1.73-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 13 new highs and 115 new lows.