US STOCKS-Wall Street higher ahead of manufacturing report

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* ISM's PMI manufacturing data at 10:00 a.m. ET
* Philip Morris rises on BofA Merrill Lynch upgrade
* McDonald's drops on JPM comments
* Indexes up: Dow 0.45%, S&P 0.50%, Nasdaq 0.74%

(Updates to open)
By Medha Singh and Arjun Panchadar
Oct 1 (Reuters) - Gains in technology stocks lifted Wall
Street's three main indexes higher for the second straight
session on Tuesday, while investors awaited manufacturing data
for fresh signs of domestic demand in the world's largest
economy.
The ISM's purchasing managers index (PMI) data, due at 10:00
a.m. ET (1400 GMT), is likely to show the manufacturing sector
rebounded to 50.1 in September after contracting for the first
time in 3-1/2 years to 49.1 in August.
It will come on the heels of euro zone manufacturing data
which contracted at its steepest rate in almost seven years.
"If we look at some of the data out of either Asia Pacific
or European zone, the U.S. economic data has certainly been the
standout across the board," said Art Hogan, chief market
strategist at National Securities in New York.
The technology sector .SPLRCT gained 1.02%, the most among
11 major S&P sectors, with Apple Inc AAPL.O and Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O providing the biggest boost.
Semiconductor stocks Analog Devices ADI.O and Microchip
Technology MCHP.O rose more than 3% after KeyBanc upgraded the
chipmakers to "overweight". Shares of peer Xilinx XLNX.O
slipped 1.4% after the brokerage lowered its rating to "sector
weight".
Despite a prolonged U.S.-China trade war that has hammered
global growth, confidence in the domestic economy is one of the
factors that has helped the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX climb more
than 19% so far this year.
A crucial jobs report on Friday is expected to shed further
light on U.S. economic growth. The Federal Reserve is also
looking at these data to determine whether it should cut
interest rates again this year.
At 9:47 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 121.05 points, or 0.45%, at 27,037.88, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 14.85 points, or 0.50%, at 2,991.59. The Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 58.92 points, or 0.74%, at 8,058.26.
McDonald's Corp MCD.N dropped 2.4% after JP Morgan said
the fast food chain's third-quarter same-store sales would be
softer than it initially thought.
The benchmark 10-year note yield US10YT=RR ticked higher,
helping the interest-rate sensitive bank sub-sector .SPXBK
rise 0.96%.
Philip Morris International Inc PM.N gained 0.4% after
reports that Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the
cigarette maker's stock to "buy" from "neutral."
Shares of online brokerage E*Trade Financial ETFC.O
tumbled 18.7%, the most on the S&P 500, following rival Charles
Schwab Corp's SCHW.N move to remove commissions for online
trading of stocks, ETFs and options listed on U.S. or Canadian
exchanges.
Shares of Charles Schwab dropped 8.8%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.04-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 2.57-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 10 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 23 new highs and 30 new lows.