Wall Street higher on Apple, energy stocks; Fed awaited

By Abhiram Nandakumar

REUTERS - Wall Street was boosted by gains in Apple and energy stocks on Wednesday, ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy statement later in the day.

Apple sold 48 million iPhones in the latest reported quarter and reported a near doubling of revenue from China, allaying concerns about its business in the world's second-largest economy.

The stock was up 2 percent at $116.87, providing the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite.

The Fed's statement is due at 2:00 p.m. ET (1800 GMT), after its two-day policy meeting ends. While the central bank is not expected to raise rates at the meeting, traders will parse the statement for clues on when it will pull the trigger.

"The issues (the Fed) talked about in September are still there," said Drew Horter, founder of Horter Investment Management. "I don't think they're going to raise until 2016 because there are too many questions right now."

At 11:06 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 106.56 points, or 0.61 percent, at 17,687.99, the S&P 500 was up 13.89 points, or 0.67 percent, at 2,079.78 and the Nasdaq composite index was up 29.51 points, or 0.59 percent, at 5,059.66.

"Today, you'll probably see a pretty calm market until the (Fed's) announcement," said Jeff Powell, managing partner of Polaris Wealth Advisors, adding that volatility was likely to increase later in the session as traders interpret the statement.

The S&P energy sector was up 2.5 percent, leading the gainers among the major S&P sectors, as crude oil prices rallied. Exxon and Chevron were up about 2 percent.

IBM's 2.3 percent rise gave the biggest boost to the Dow. The company said it would buy the Weather Company's digital assets for an undisclosed amount.

AIG jumped 3.1 percent to $62.78 after activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed a "large stake" in the insurer and said the company should split itself into three listed entities.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts was up 5.8 percent at $79.13 after CNBC reported said Hyatt Hotels was in advanced talks to buy the company.

Rite Aid shares lost some of Tuesday's gains and were trading down 7.7 percent at $8.01, a day after Walgreens Boots Alliance said it would buy the drugstore operator for $9.4 billion. Walgreens was down 8.3 percent at $87.28.

Twitter slumped 7.7 percent to $28.94, while Akamai Technologies dropped 19.8 percent to $60.58 after disappointing results.

Amgen, GoPro and PayPal will post results after the close. GoPro was up 3.5 percent.

Analyst estimates for U.S. third-quarter earnings have improved, with S&P 500 companies now expected to report a modest 2 percent decline in profit, compared with the 4.9 percent drop forecast at the start of the earnings season, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,380 to 548. On the Nasdaq, 2,217 issues rose and 498 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 24 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 85 new highs and 62 new lows.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)