Wall St. opens higher on Greek debt deal

(Reuters) - Wall Street opened sharply higher on Monday after euro zone leaders reached an agreement with Greece to move forward with a third bailout loan for the country to avert bankruptcy.

Greece won conditional agreement to receive a possible $95 billion over three years, along with an assurance that euro zone finance ministers would start discussing ways to bridge a funding gap until a bailout ? subject to parliamentary approvals ? is finally ready.

That will only happen if Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can meet a tight timetable for enacting unpopular reforms of value added tax, pensions and quasi-automatic budget cuts.

"For the markets, it's clearly a positive that there is an agreement among the European member states and that there is an atmosphere of co-operation," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.

"Still, there is a bit of execution risk which may haunt us in terms of volatility."

World markets rose, while the dollar index <.DXY> gained 0.51 percent to $96.50 against a basket of major currencies following news of the deal. Chinese stocks rose for a third straight session as data showed exports increased while imports slipped in June, a tentative sign global demand might be on the mend.

At 9:40 a.m. ET the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 166.36 points, or 0.94 percent, at 17,926.77. The S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 16.43 points, or 0.79 percent, at 2,093.05 and the Nasdaq composite <.IXIC> was up 43.74 points, or 0.88 percent, at 5,041.44.

All the 10 major S&P 500 sectors were higher. The consumer discretionary index's <.SPLRCD> 1.07 percent rise led the gains.

Financial stocks were also higher with the index <.SPSY> gaining 0.99 percent, following the Greek debt deal. Big banks such as JPMorgan , Bank of America , Citigroup were all up 1 percent.

Oil prices tumbled as Iran and six world powers closed in on a nuclear deal that would end sanctions on the Islamic Republic and let more Iranian oil on to world markets.

However, the oil price slide boosted U.S. airline stocks <.DJUSAR>. American Airlines , United Continental , JetBlue , Alaska Air were all up between 1.5 to up 2 percent.

Apple shares were up 1.1 percent at $124.64 after Socgen upgraded the company's stock to "buy" from "hold", saying it expected a successful launch of the new iPhone 6S handset in September.

Ascena Retail Group slumped 13.9 percent to $14.10 after the retail chain cut its full-year profit forecast.

Remy International soared 42 percent to $29.15 after auto parts maker BorgWarner said it would buy the company for about $1.2 billion in cash, including debt. BorgWarner's shares rose 0.5 percent to $53.90.

The U.S. Treasury Department is scheduled to issue its June budget report at 2 p.m. ET. The department is expected to post a budget surplus of $51.0 billion, compared with a $82.4 billion deficit reported in May.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,095 to 615. On the Nasdaq, 1,735 issues rose and 583 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 29 new 52-week highs and four new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 76 new highs and 18 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash and Alistair Smout; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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