US STOCKS-Energy stocks fuel rally on Wall Street
* Q3 GDP growth at 2 percent
* Chipotle drops after Federal probe into E.coli strain
* Brent recovers from 11-year low
* Indexes up: Dow 0.93 pct, S&P 0.79 pct, Nasdaq (NasdaqGS: NDAQ - news) 0.51 pct (Updates to afternoon)
By Noel Randewich
Dec 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street rallied on Tuesday as crude oil prices recovered slightly and data showed that the U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . economy grew at a fairly healthy clip in the third quarter.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1 percent, with Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT - news) up 5.3 percent and on the way to its biggest one-day gain since October.
Brent crude prices recovered marginally but remained near their lowest levels since mid-2004, with persistent global oversupply concerns and tepid demand for heating oil remaining in what is likely to be the warmest winter on record.
That recovery was enough to push the S&P energy sector 1.38 percent higher. The sector has been the worst performer in 2015, falling about 24 percent so far this year.
Chevron (Swiss: CVX.SW - news) shares were up 0.9 percent while Exxon was up 0.5 percent.
The materials index rose 1.4 percent, with Dow Chemical up 1.78 percent.
Much of Tuesday's gains were a result of last-minute tweaks by investment funds, said Ken Winans, president of Winans Investments in Novato, California.
"It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) 's shoring up, late-in-the-month repositioning of portfolios and reallocation," Winans said.
Potentially easing concerns about the pace of future interest rate hikes, the U.S. Commerce Department trimmed third-quarter economic growth to a 2 percent annual pace from the 2.1 percent estimated earlier.
At 2:27 p.m. EST (1927 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.93 percent at 17,412.2 points.
The S&P 500 gained 0.79 percent to 2,037.03 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.51 percent to 4,994.32.
Trading volumes are expected to be relatively light this week, with U.S. stock markets operating a shortened session on Thursday and closing on Friday for Christmas.
Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) of Nike (Sao Paolo: NIKE34F.SA - news) , the top gainer this year in the Dow Jones industrial average, rose 1.3 percent ahead of its fiscal second-quarter report expected after the bell.
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG - news) tumbled 4.4 percent after Federal authorities said they were investigating a new strain of E. coli linked to the burrito chain.
Ford jumped 3.38 percent after Automotive News reported that the automaker was in talks with Google to help build self-driving cars.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 2,312 to 718. On the Nasdaq, 1,687 issues rose and 1,117 fell.
The S&P 500 index showed four new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 31 new highs and 60 new lows. (Additional reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar and Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernadette Baum)