* Trade-sensitive industrials gain most among S&P sectors
* U.S. lawmakers working on deal to avoid another shutdown
* EA gains after analysts upbeat on new game
* Indexes up: Dow 0.31 pct, S&P 0.35 pct, Nasdaq 0.51 pct (Updates to open)
By Amy Caren Daniel
Feb 11 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Monday, led byindustrial companies, as the United States and China began theirlatest round of trade talks to hammer out a deal before thelooming March deadline.
China struck an upbeat note on the talks, while White Housesenior counselor Kellyanne Conway also expressed confidence of apossible deal. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N20614C
Boeing IncBA.N , the largest U.S. exporter to China, andCaterpillar Inc CAT.N both gained 1 percent and pushed thetrade-sensitive industrial sector .SPLRCI 0.71 percent higher.
"These trade talks are being viewed as a positive," saidScott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg,Florida.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty, but there's thispattern of markets embracing good news a little bit more thanbad news."
The latest talks come against the backdrop of last month'sdiscussions ending without a deal and the top U.S. negotiatordeclaring that a lot more work needed to be done.
"The market is reacting to shifting news but there won't bea significant move until we get a resolution to trade," Brownsaid.
Also on investors' watchlist is the border security fundingtalks, which collapsed on Sunday after Democratic and Republicanlawmakers clashed over immigrant detention policy. A specialnegotiating panel is aiming to reach a deal by Monday ahead of aFriday deadline to avert another government shutdown. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N20503N
Trade uncertainty and worries of a global economic slowdown capped gains on the S&P 500 .SPX , which ended last week flat.Still the benchmark index is nearly 16 percent above itsDecember lows, helped in part by a dovish Federal Reserve andlargely upbeat earnings reports.
Of the S&P 500 companies that have reported fourth-quarterearnings, 71.2 percent have topped estimates, according to IBESdata from Refinitiv. But analysts' estimates for first-quarterearnings have turned negative for the first time since 2016. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2030V5
At 9:39 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI wasup 78.62 points, or 0.31 percent, at 25,184.95. The S&P 500 .SPX was up 9.43 points, or 0.35 percent, at 2,717.31 and theNasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 37.41 points, or 0.51 percent,at 7,335.61.
The energy sector .SPNY fell 0.54 percent and was the onlymajor S&P sector to drop, as oil prices slipped. O/R
The heavyweight FAANG stocks - Facebook IncFB.O , AppleInc AAPL.O , Alphabet IncGOOGL.O , Netflix IncNFLX.O andAmazon.com Inc AMZN.O - rose between 0.4 percent and 1.4percent.
Electronics Arts IncEA.O gained 8.8 percent afteranalysts were upbeat about a strong start to the videogamepublisher's newly launched rival to "Fortnite". urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2033JH
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.78-to-1 ratioon the NYSE and by a 1.99-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 15 new 52-week highs and one newlows, while the Nasdaq recorded 34 new highs and six new lows. (Reporting by Amy Caren Daniel and Shreyashi Sanyal inBengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and SrirajKalluvila) ((Amy.CarenDaniel@thomsonreuters.com ; within U.S.+1-646-223-8780; outside U.S. +91 80 6749 9250 ; ReutersMessaging: Amy.CarenDaniel.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
