US STOCKS-Wall St set to open higher after bumper earnings from big banks

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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
* S&P, Dow, Nasdaq futures up about 0.2%

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By Shivani Kumaresan
April 16 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to open higher on
Friday after Morgan Stanley wrapped up 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.
Wall Street's three main indexes have bounced this month as
upbeat economic data as well as 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 that beat market expectations as its investment banking
and trading desks benefited from a global dealmaking boom and
record levels of capital markets activity. Its shares rose 0.5% in volatile premarket trading, but
gains were capped as it also disclosed an almost $1 billion loss
from the collapse of private fund Archegos.
Bumper earnings earlier this week from JPMorgan Chase & Co
JPM.N , Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , and Bank of America
BAC.N have all reinforced hopes of a swift economic recovery.
"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 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 less than a percent below its
own all-time peak.
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,
edged up in trading before the bell.
At 08:24 a.m. EDT, Dow E-minis 1YMcv1 were up 70 points,
or 0.21% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were up 31.75 points, or
0.23%. S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were up 8.75 points, or 0.21%.
Energy majors Chevron Corp CVX.N , Marathon Petroleum
MPC.N , Exxon Mobil Corp XOM.N and Occidental Petroleum
OXY.N , gained between 0.4% and 1% as oil prices rose. O/R
Bitcoin related stocks Riot Blockchain RIOT.O , Marathon
Digital MARA.O fell more than 5% after Turkey banned the use
of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to purchase goods and
services.