US STOCKS-Trade deal hopes lift Wall St for second straight session

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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
* Cisco falls on report of GS downgrade
* Indexes up: Dow 0.85%, S&P 500 0.91%, Nasdaq 0.91%

(Updates market action, adds background)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose by about 1% for the
second straight day 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 lifted the technology sector.
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. "The tweet ... is giving market participants a reason to
believe that perhaps a trade deal or at least a partial deal
might be announced as early as tomorrow," said Robert Pavlik,
chief investment strategist at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New
York.
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. "Some sort of agreement towards currency is fine, but it
would not get us anywhere near from where we started this
issue," Pavlik said.
The latest comments fueled optimism that had been dulled
earlier after China urged the United States to stop unreasonable
pressure on Chinese companies, while the South China Morning
Post reported that the two sides made no progress in
deputy-level trade talks earlier in the week.
Equity markets have been rankled by weak economic indicators
showing a sharp 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.
Fresh data on Thursday showed U.S. consumer prices were
unchanged in September, while underlying inflation retreated.
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.4%, lifting the technology sector
.SPLCRT by 1%, after Longbow Research upgraded the company's
stock to "buy", citing higher iPhone 11 demand.
Apple suppliers Skyworks Solutions Inc SWKS.O and Qorvo
Inc QRVO.O gained 5% and 4.6%, respectively, after Cowen and
Co upgraded its rating on both the companies, expecting them to
benefit from higher iPhone demand.
At 11:31 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 224.93 points, or 0.85%, at 26,570.94, while the S&P 500
.SPX was up 26.44 points, or 0.91%, at 2,945.84. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 71.85 points, or 0.91%, at 7,975.59.
Among other stocks, Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N fell 3.5%,
the most on the S&P 500, after the carrier forecast
disappointing current-quarter profit. Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O dropped 2%, after a report that
Goldman Sachs downgraded the network gear maker's shares to
"neutral".
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.20-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.96-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded four new 52-week highs and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 10 new highs and 71 new lows.