US STOCKS-Wall St bounces as oil cools, inflation risks keeps Fed in focus

By Tharuniyaa Lakshmi and Niket Nishant

Sept 11 (Reuters) - The main U.S. stock indexes rose on Friday as a pullback in oil prices offered relief, setting stocks on course to end a rough week on a positive note though data showed consumer price inflation accelerated in August.

Dell DELL.N jumped over 11% to hit a record high. Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPE.N rose nearly 10% and HP HPQ.N gained about 7%, after strong results from Oracle ORCL.N.

The gains ease some pressure at a time when fluctuating rate expectations, the intensifying Middle East conflict and elevated Treasury yields have weighed on equities.

"After several days of defensive positioning, today's move looks like a regression to the mean. The market may have been in a temporary oversold condition, and we're now seeing some of that unwind," said Andre Bakhos, managing member at Ingenium Analytics.

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4% last month after edging up 0.1% in July. In the 12 months through August, consumer inflation advanced 3.4%, in line with July's gains.

"Today's numbers are not enough to make investors run for the exits," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners, noting that Thursday's declines could have been overdone.

The report followed Thursday's slightly hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index reading. Traders see an 87% chance of a hike at the Fed's next meeting, compared with nearly 70% before the CPI, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

"We believe that the Federal Reserve needs to respond to these in the near term or risk a repeat of the high inflation of the 1970s, which would represent yet another failure of discretionary monetary policy," according to Said Haidar, founder of Haidar Capital Management.

At 11:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 530.49 points, or 1.02%, to 52,593.73; the S&P 500 .SPX gained 79.68 points, or 1.05%, to 7,671.38; and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 318.32 points, or 1.22%, to 26,400.04.

Still, the Dow was on course for its steepest weekly decline since March. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were also set to end two-week winning streaks.

The CBOE Volatility Index .VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, fell 2.08 points to 15.76.

Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes traded in the green, with the communication services .SPLRCL and technology indexes .SPLRCT leading gains.

Brent crude futures slipped about 3% but were still above $104 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 3% but were close to the $100-a-barrel mark.

Meanwhile, Oracle inched up nearly 1% after topping estimates for quarterly results late Thursday, which reassured shareholders that its AI investments were generating returns.

Shares of ACV Auctions ACVA.N soared 44% after online vehicle auctioneer Copart CPRT.O agreed to buy it in a nearly $1.9 billion deal.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.07-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.8-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted seven new 52-week highs and six new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 38 new highs and 128 new lows.