Wall St climbs on oil, earnings; Intel curbs advance

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were on track for its second straight advance on Wednesday, as a climb in oil prices buoyed the energy sector and earnings from Morgan Stanley helped lift financials.

Oil prices were up more than 2 percent, with U.S. crude touching a 15-month high after the government reported a sharp drop in domestic inventories for the sixth week in seven.

The energy sector <.SPNY> jumped 2 percent, the most in three weeks, with a 5.2 percent rise in Halliburton also providing a boost after the world's No.2 oilfield services provider posted third-quarter results.

Morgan Stanley gained 1.8 percent after posting a better-than-expected quarterly profit to round out a string of solid results from big U.S. banks. The financial sector <.SPSY> has risen in three of the past four sessions for a 1.8 percent advance.

 

"We've seen earnings kind of trough, we are going to see better earnings and we are going to start to move from the negative overall into the positive this quarter and next," said Jeff Kravetz, regional investment director at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank in Phoenix, Arizona.

A disappointing revenue forecast from Intel capped the advance on Wall Street, however. The chipmaker tumbled 6.1 percent as the biggest drag on each of the three major indexes. The PHLX semiconductor index <.SOX> shed 0.45 percent.

With 70 companies in the S&P 500 having reported earnings through Wednesday morning, 80 percent have topped earnings' expectations. Analysts now estimate earnings increased 0.5 percent in the third quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, which would be the first quarter of growth in five.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 70.27 points, or 0.39 percent, to 18,232.21, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 7.07 points, or 0.33 percent, to 2,146.67 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 5.86 points, or 0.11 percent, to 5,249.70.

The U.S. economy showed some signs of rising wage pressures in September and early October but overall compensation growth remained modest, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report.

The third and final U.S. presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton is set to begin on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Thursday).

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.13-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.80-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 58 new highs and 48 new lows.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Frances Kerry)