Wall Street up on data, may end 6-day losing streak

By Tanya Agrawal and Sweta Singh

REUTERS - U.S. stocks rose in morning trading on Wednesday, helped by stronger-than-expected durable goods data, raising hopes that Wall Street will snap its six-day losing streak.

Although stocks were off their highs by late morning, all 10 major S&P 500 sectors were up, led by the technology index's 2.6 percent gain.

Apple Inc provided the biggest boost to the three major U.S. indexes.

Durable goods orders rose 2 percent in July, compared with analysts' average forecast of a 4 percent fall. Orders for core capital goods, a proxy for business investment, rose 2.2 percent - their biggest gain in 13 months..

The data suggested U.S. economy was in good shape.

Wednesday's gains followed a dramatic day of trading on Tuesday, when the three main indexes reversed course suddenly to close sharply lower amid lingering worries about slowing growth in China.

"I think today's early rally is because nothing particularly bad happened overnight and while everyone is looking at China very nervously, today's data showed that the U.S. is growing," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

The stronger durable goods data appeared to improve the case for a U.S. interest rate increase in September.

However, New York Fed President William Dudley said an interest rate hike next month seems less appropriate given the recent global market turmoil.

At 11:17 a.m. ET (1517 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 261.56 points, or 1.67 percent, at 15,928, the S&P 500 was up 30.83 points, or 1.65 percent, at 1,898.44 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 75.83 points, or 1.68 percent, at 4,582.32.

All 30 stocks in the Dow were up.

Up to Tuesday's close, the Dow had lost 10.71 percent in the past six trading days, while the S&P 500 dropped 11.71 percent and the Nasdaq composite 11.5 percent.

The S&P 500 rose as much as 2.9 percent on Tuesday before closing down 1.35 percent, while the Dow rose as much as 2.8 percent before closing down 1.29 percent. The Nasdaq rose as much as 3.6 percent before ending down 0.44 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended down for the fifth straight day, underscoring fragile confidence and deep doubt over whether the Chinese central bank's cuts in interest rates and reserve ratios on Tuesday could stabilize the economy.

The dollar index, which touched a 7-month low earlier in the week, was up 0.13 percent after the U.S. data. Treasury prices fell.

Google shares were up 4.5 percent at $640 after Goldman Sachs raised its rating to "buy" from "neutral" and added it to its conviction buy list.

Cameron International soared 41.2 percent to $59.94 after Schlumberger, the world's No.1 oilfield services company, said it would buy the oilfield equipment maker in a $14.8 billion deal. Schlumberger fell 4.8 percent to $69.08.

Abercrombie & Fitch jumped 13.1 percent to $19.53 after the teen apparel retailer reported better-than-expected quarterly sales.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,026 to 959. On the Nasdaq, 1,646 issues rose and 1,033 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed no new 52-week highs and 22 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded three new highs and 85 new lows.

(Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)