* Tariffs will not necessarily spark a trade war, Navarro
* Industrial stock gain for first time in four sessions
* Alibaba up on report of
* Dollar General, Sears gain after Q4 results
* Indexes up: Dow 1.12 pct, S&P 0.38 pct, Nasdaq 0.3 pct(Changes comment, adds details, updates prices)
By Sruthi Shankar
March 15 (Reuters) -
President Donald Trump's tough approach to global trade,including his new tariffs on metals imports, will notnecessarily provoke retaliation from trading partners, PeterNavarro, the top adviser on international economic exchanges,said on CNBC.
"I think the initial reaction to the commentary about tradetariffs, it was very destabilizing to the markets that the WhiteHouse is aware of that and I think they dialed back the rhetoricto an extent," said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist atGlobal Markets Advisory Group in
Corporates, especially manufacturers, have been underpressure from Trump's protectionist policies, which recentlyincluded an aim to impose tariffs of up to
"Prices of equities have become modestly more attractive inthe recent days as a result of the compression in prices," saidKenny.
The S&P industrial index was up 0.73 percent, thebest performer among the 11 major S&P sectors and gaining forthe first time in fours sessions.
General Electric, 3M and Caterpillarwere up more than 1 percent. Boeing, which investors saymay be particularly vulnerable to a trade war, was up a moremodest 0.4 percent.
By 11:40 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Averagehad added 1.12 percent to 25,035.02. The S&P 500 rose0.38 percent to 2,759.98 and the Nasdaq Composite gained0.3 percent to 7,519.55.
The markets also found support from economic data thatshowed weekly jobless claims fell last week, pointing a stronglabor market, while a bigger-than-expected rise in
Among stocks, Alibaba jumped 4.4 percent on reportthat the Chinese e-commerce giant was planning to list in
Dollar General rose 5.8 percent after the discountretailer's quarterly same-store sales beat estimates, whileSears gained 5 percent reporting asmaller-than-expected drop in same-store sales.
Qorvo tumbled 5.9 percent to the bottom of the S&Pafter Bank of America said the RF chipmaker could lose out toBroadcom for a spot in upcoming iPhones.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,423to 1,346. On the Nasdaq, 1,552 issues rose and 1,238 fell.(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by ArunKoyyur)