US STOCKS-U.S. stocks rise on tech gains, oil rebound

(In bullet point and in paragraph 16, corrects to say that shares of Bed Bath & Beyond (NasdaqGS: BBBY - news) fell, not that the shares hit a record low)

* Nasdaq (Frankfurt: 813516 - news) on track to post first weekly gain in 3 weeks

* Oil bounces off multi-month lows

* Bed Bath & Beyond falls

* Indexes up: Dow 0.09 pct, S&P 0.24 pct, Nasdaq 0.44 pct

By Sruthi Shankar

June 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were higher in early afternoon trading on Friday, with the Nasdaq set to post its first weekly gain in three weeks, helped by gains in technology stocks and a rebound in oil prices.

A rise in large-cap technology stocks, including Apple (Swiss: AAPL-EUR.SW - news) , Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) and Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX - news) , pushed up the S&P 500 information technology sector 0.82 percent.

Tech stocks had sold off sharply in the past two weeks on concerns over stretched valuations.

Oil prices climbed about 1 percent, edging up from 10-month lows, but remained on course for its biggest first-half decline since the late 1990s as production cuts have failed to reduce oversupply.

At current levels, the S&P 500 energy index, down 15 percent so far this year, is on track to post its worst weekly decline in about 18 months.

Sliding oil prices have added to concerns about the inflation outlook, which along with a flattening yield curve, could pose a challenge for the Federal Reserve to decide whether the economy was ready for another interest rate hike this year.

The Fed should wait on any further rate increases until it is clear inflation is reliably heading to the central bank's 2 percent target, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Friday.

At 12:51 p.m. ET (1651 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 18.35 points, or 0.09 percent, at 21,415.64, the S&P 500 was up 5.97 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,440.47.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 27.33 points, or 0.44 percent, at 6,264.01.

The laggards included the healthcare index and the financial index, down 0.24 percent and 0.27 percent.

Healthcare (Shanghai: 603313.SS - news) stocks rallied on Thursday after Senate Republicans unveiled legislation that would replace Obamacare.

However, the bill drew skepticism from the Democrats, who attacked the legislation as a callous giveaway to the rich that would leave millions without coverage.

"The market is banking a lot of its future on the Trump trade," said Ken Moraif, senior adviser at Money Matters, a wealth management and investment firm.

"So when we see progress, the markets react positively to it."

Among stocks, BlackBerry (Swiss: BB.SW - news) 's U.S.-listed shares were down 11.8 percent after quarterly revenue missed estimate due to an unexpected drop in its high-margin software and professional services sales.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares fell as the company reported a bigger-than-expected drop in same-store sales.

Steel companies, including US Steel and AK Steel , climbed following a Deutsche Bank (IOB: 0H7D.IL - news) upgrade.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,901 to 765. On the Nasdaq, 1,719 issues rose and 874 fell. (Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)