US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow hit record highs on bank earnings boost

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* S&P 500, Dow set for fourth straight week of gains
* Morgan Stanley wraps up earnings from big banks
* Strong U.S. data boosts economic recovery hopes
* Indexes: Dow up 0.29%, S&P adds 0.07%, Nasdaq off 0.34%

(Updates to open)
By Shivani Kumaresan
April 16 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow hit record
highs on Friday after Morgan Stanley wrapped up quarterly
earnings reports from the big U.S. banks with a profit surge,
while optimism about a solid economic rebound put the main
indexes on course for weekly gains.
Nine of the 11 S&P indexes were trading higher, with only
the communication services .SPLRCL and information technology
.SPLRCT indexes edging lower after outperforming in the
previous session.
Wall Street's three main indexes have bounced this month as
upbeat economic data, a solid start to the first-quarter
corporate earnings season and the Federal Reserve's pledge to
keep interest rates low despite higher inflation boosted demand,
particularly for richly valued technology stocks.
Morgan Stanley MS.N reported a 150% jump in quarterly
profit on Friday, joining JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N , Goldman
Sachs Group Inc GS.N and Bank of America BAC.N in
reinforcing hopes of a swift economic recovery.
Still, the investment bank's shares fell 1.2% as it also
disclosed an almost $1 billion loss from the collapse of private
fund Archegos. Shares of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America,
Citigroup Inc C.N and Wells Fargo and Co WFC.N were up as
much as 1.6%.
"So far, the financial sector has reported very strong
earnings and that could be key for this earnings season," said
Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital
Securities in New York.
"There seems to be a new burst of enthusiasm, also because
we have a back off in (bond) yields. It is certainly helpful in
terms of risk."
Global equities also hit record highs as China's GDP grew at
a record 18.3% in the first quarter. A separate set of numbers
on Thursday showed U.S. retail sales rose by the most in 10
months in March and weekly jobless claims fell for the week
ended April 10. The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the blue-chip Dow .DJI
are on course for their fourth straight week of gains, while the
technology-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC is about a percent below its own
all-time peak.
By 9:54 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 97.72 points, or 0.29%, at 34,133.71, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 2.95 points, or 0.07%, at 4,173.37, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was down 47.05 points, or 0.34%, at 13,991.71.
Tech behemoths Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O ,
Tesla Inc TSLA.O Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , which led Wall
Street's recovery last year from the coronavirus-fueled crash,
slipped between 0.4% and 1.5%.
Bitcoin related stocks including Riot Blockchain RIOT.O
and Marathon Digital MARA.O slumped 9% after Turkey banned the
use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to purchase goods and
services. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.32-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE, while declining issues outnumbered advancers for a
1.57-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 136 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 121 new highs and 64 new lows.