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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 0.51%, S&P 500 0.61%, Nasdaq 0.52%
(Updates to early afternoon, adds comment)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose in early afternoon
trading 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.
However, the three main indexes were off their session
highs, with some analysts pointing to a sense of caution among
investors.
"There is just too much pessimism overall. Investors know
that we are not going to get a proper deal, but are still
looking for some bit of good news to digest," said Jason Browne,
president at Alexis Investment Partners LLC in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania.
Stock markets have been rankled 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. Apple Inc AAPL.O rose 1.2%, lifting the technology sector
.SPLCRT by 0.6%, 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 4.3% and 4.4%, respectively, after Cowen and
Co upgraded its rating on both the companies, expecting them to
benefit from higher iPhone demand.
At 12:43 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 135.10 points, or 0.51%, at 26,481.11, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 17.75 points, or 0.61%, at 2,937.15 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 41.08 points, or 0.52%, at 7,944.83.
Among other stocks, Delta Air Lines Inc DAL.N fell 2.8%,
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 1.80-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 1.47-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and four new
lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 10 new highs and 91 new lows.