(Corrects paragraph 15 by removing reference to LDK Solar naming a new chief financial officer)
* Apple shares hit new high in intraday trading
* Dollar edges lower on hopes Fed will ease
* Gymboree, Harbin surge on prospect for deals
* Dow up 0.1 pct, S&P up 0.1 pct, Nasdaq up 0.4 pct (Updates to early afternoon trading)
By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Many equity investors expect the Federal Reserve to flood markets with even more cash and a strong third-quarter earnings season, but without more evidence of either event, Wall Street will tread water in the coming days.
Stocks inched higher on Monday, though the Nasdaq's gain was a little stronger due to demand for tech shares.
Friday's unexpectedly weak payroll report underlined the lingering weakness in some areas of the economy, and increased the expectation that the U.S. Federal Reserve will bolster the recovery with a second round of quantitative easing, or QE2.
After Friday's report, "everyone understands that the Fed has its back to the wall," said Joseph Greco, managing director of Meridian Equity Partners in New York. "The jobs report reminded the Fed that certain forces are not waiting on press releases, so I expect a statement with more aggressive language this week."
Three Dow components -- Intel Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and General Electric Co -- are scheduled to release quarterly results this week. Investors will look at revenue outlooks for insight into how corporations are faring. Bellwethers Google Inc and CSX Corp are also on tap.
"Trading will be light until we get more numbers, but if companies follow Alcoa and come out with positive surprises, that could add fuel to this rally," said King Lip, chief investment officer of Baker Avenue Asset Management in San Francisco.
"That said, they could come in light on revenue, which could make the market take a breather."
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 10.40 points, or 0.09 percent, at 11,016.88. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 1.63 points, or 0.14 percent, at 1,166.78. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 9.48 points, or 0.40 percent, at 2,411.39.
Apple Inc shares rose 1 percent and hit an all-time high of $297.12 in intraday trading. Earlier, an executive at AT&T Incsaid the company would lose its exclusive contract on Apple's iPhone "someday in the future." In early afternoon trading, Apple's stock was up 0.9 percent at $296.82 and ranked as the top positive influence on the Nasdaq 100.
The dollar rose 0.1 percent against a basket of other major currencies as the Fed looked set to inject more cash into the economy. But with bets against the greenback piling up, traders were wary about pushing it lower.
The dollar and equities have traded in inverse correlation as investors leave the perceived safety of the currency to put money into equities.
The dollar was also affected after the International Monetary Fund's member countries failed to defuse currency tensions over the weekend.
"Weakness in the dollar is good because it will help some multinational corporations, but it's a double-edged sword as it increases the deficit at the same time," said Len Blum, managing partner of Westwood Capital LLC in New York.
Gymboree Corp surged 22.6 percent to $64.93 after it agreed
to sell itself to Bain Capital, a private equity firm, for $1.8
billion. The U.S.-listed shares of Harbin Electric Inc
LDK Solar Co Ltd jumped 15.3 percent to $11.30 after the Chinese solar wafer maker raised its revenue outlook.
Dow component Microsoft Corp rose 0.3 percent to $24.65 after unveiling a new line of phones running its Windows software in an attempt to regain market share in the smartphone space.