US STOCKS-Wall Street soars on U.S. rate cut hopes

* Powell says Fed to react 'as appropriate' to trade war
risks
* Ten of 11 major S&P sectors rise, Tech leads with 3.3%
gain
* Five sectors rise more than 2%; real estate falls
* Indexes up: Dow 2.06%, S&P 500 2.14%, Nasdaq 2.65%

(Updates to close, adds commentary)
By Sinéad Carew
NEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Wall Street's three major
indexes rallied on Tuesday to clock their biggest one-day gains
in five months after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left
the door open for a possible rate cut.
Powell said the central bank would act "as appropriate" to
address trade war risks a day after St. Louis Fed chief James
Bullard said a rate cut may be warranted soon. Powell said the
Fed was "closely monitoring the implications" of a trade dispute
that has disrupted global markets. The last time the benchmark S&P index showed a bigger daily
percentage gain was on Jan. 4, when Powell turned more dovish
after a late 2018 sell-off, with a promise that the Fed would be
patient and flexible in its interest rate path. Investors have been betting the Fed would cut rates at least
once by the end of 2019, according to CME Group's Fedwatch, and
Tuesday's comments helped to back up these bets.
"Given the fact there's more than a 95 percent probability
of a rate cut baked into fixed income it's nice to hear the Fed
say it will wait for the economy to tell it what to do. If the
economy slows due to tariffs, the Fed would consider cutting
rates," said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD
Ameritrade in Chicago.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 512.4 points,
or 2.06%, to 25,332.18, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 58.82 points,
or 2.14%, to 2,803.27 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
194.10 points, or 2.65%, to 7,527.12.
The S&P 500 shed more than 6% in May as investors feared a
global growth slowdown while trade tensions ramped up between
the United States and China and the United States and Mexico.
"When the market's been down as much as it has been, all you
need is a little bit of a spark," said Paul Nolte, portfolio
manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.
Nolte said investors also were encouraged after Mexican
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he was optimistic
that a deal could be reached even as U.S. President Donald Trump
said he was likely to go ahead with new tariffs on all Mexican
goods. A Washington Post report that Republican lawmakers were
discussing whether they may have to vote to block President
Trump's planned new tariffs on Mexico also helped sentiment.
Earlier in the day, China's commerce ministry said the
differences and frictions with Washington should be resolved
through dialogue. But Ameritrade's Kinahan advised taking trade stories "with
a grain of salt because it may change tomorrow."
"We're going to continue to see tariffs take us back and
forth. Particularly now that we're done with earnings, it's the
main game in town," he said.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq's rebound on Tuesday came after it
confirmed a correction on Monday, having lost more than 10%
since its record closing high on May 3.
The technology sector .SPLRCT was the biggest boost to the
S&P with a 3.3% advance, led by gains in Apple Inc AAPL.O and
Microsoft MSFT.O .
Rising U.S. Treasury yields boosted the S&P 500 bank index
.SPXBK , which jumped 3.65%. US/ Only the dividend-paying real estate .SPLRCR sector ended
the day in the red with a 0.6% drop as investors poured their
money into riskier bets.
But utilities .SPLRCU , typically seen as one of the most
defensive bets, edged slightly higher with a 0.04% gain.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
4.07-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.18-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 25 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 44 new highs and 74 new lows.
On U.S. exchanges 7.53 billion shares changed hands compared
with the 7.16 billion average in the last 20 sessions.