US STOCKS-Indexes climb on fresh hope of U.S.-China trade deal

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* Trump to meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday

* China willing to reach agreement with U.S. - Xinhua

* Apple rises as brokerage sees higher iPhone demand

* Indexes up: Dow 0.5%, S&P 500 0.6%, Nasdaq 0.5% (Updates to late afternoon)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday on hopes that top-level U.S.-China trade talks would yield at least a partial deal, while a rise in Apple's shares also boosted the market.

Wall Street's main indexes moved higher after President Donald Trump tweeted he would meet Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday for further trade talks.

Separately, Liu said Beijing was willing to reach an agreement with Washington to prevent any further escalation in the trade war, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.

A senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said U.S. and Chinese negotiators were working towards an "early harvest" of confidence-building agreements, including one to avoid currency manipulation.

"I guess there's still some hope that something happens here," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

"But there seems to be an acceptance that this thing may not be finished. The negotiations could have less of a short-term impact on the market."

Apple Inc rose 1.2%, lifting the technology sector by 0.6%, after Longbow Research upgraded the company's stock to "buy", citing higher iPhone 11 demand.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 119.55 points, or 0.45%, to 26,465.56, the S&P 500 gained 16 points, or 0.55%, to 2,935.4 and the Nasdaq Composite added 39.27 points, or 0.5%, to 7,943.01.

Stock markets have been rankled in recent weeks by weak economic indicators showing a contraction in U.S. manufacturing and a bleak reading on business activity, bolstering bets of another interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve to combat a slowdown.

Data on Thursday showed U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in September, while underlying inflation retreated.

Among other stocks, Delta Air Lines Inc fell after the carrier forecast disappointing current-quarter profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.73-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 13 new highs and 115 new lows. (Additional reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Nick Zieminski)