US STOCKS-U.S.-China trade deal hopes lift Wall Street

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* China willing to reach agreement with U.S. - Xinhua
* Trump to meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday
* Apple rises as brokerage sees higher iPhone demand
* Cisco falls on report of GS downgrade
* Indexes up: Dow 0.61%, S&P 500 0.63%, Nasdaq 0.63%

(Updates to open)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks gained 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 trade
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.
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 two sides made no progress in deputy-level
trade talks earlier in the week.
But Bloomberg said late on Wednesday that the United States
was weighing a currency pact with China as part of a partial
deal. "Some sort of agreement towards currency is fine but it
would not get us anywhere near from where we started this
issue," Pavlik said.
Equity markets have also 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.
Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.2%, lifting the technology sector
.SPLCRT by 0.7%, 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 6% and 5%, respectively, after Cowen and Co
upgraded its rating on both the companies, expecting them to
benefit from higher iPhone demand.
At 10:38 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 160.81 points, or 0.61%, at 26,506.82, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 18.27 points, or 0.63%, at 2,937.67 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 50.16 points, or 0.63%, at 7,953.90.
If Thursday's gains hold, the three main indexes will log
their second straight day of gains this week.
Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.O dropped 1.8%, after a report that
Goldman Sachs downgraded the network gear maker's shares to
"neutral".
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 1.93-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.69-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded one new 52-week high and two new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded eight new highs and 58 new lows.