US STOCKS-Wall Street set to rise on upbeat earnings, strong retail sales

* Bank of America rises as Q1 profit more than doubles
* BlackRock edges higher as quarterly profit beats estimates
* PepsiCo up as it bets on higher soda sales
* Futures up: Dow 0.50%, S&P 0.62%, Nasdaq 1.05%

(Adds comments, details, bullets; Updates prices throughout)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stock indexes looked set to open
higher on Thursday as upbeat earnings reports from several
companies including Bank of America and BlackRock as well as a
strong rebound in March retail sales bolstered hopes of a
broader economic rebound.
Bank of America's BAC.N shares rose 0.6% in premarket
trading after the lender's first-quarter profit benefited from a
$2.7 billion reserve release and gains in trading and investment
banking units. Top U.S. banks kicked off first-quarter reporting season on
Wednesday, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N , JPMorgan Chase &
Co JPM.N and Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N posting bumper results.
"With equities lingering near a record, investors are
looking to the earnings season for further catalysts," said Art
Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New
York.
"Expectations of a strong profit rebound have helped markets
rally, setting the bar high as reporting gets underway."
BlackRock Inc BLK.N , the world's largest asset manager,
gained 1.4% after reporting a 16% jump in first-quarter profit,
while PepsiCo Inc PEP.O edged 0.5% higher after it forecast a
pickup in organic revenue growth in the second quarter.
Most high-flying technology stocks rebounded from a drop in
the previous session, with Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O Facebook Inc FB.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O rising
between 0.5% and 1.2%.
The recent pullback in U.S. bond yields and the Federal
Reserve's reassurance on keeping interest rates low have led to
renewed demand for growth stocks, which suffered sharp losses in
recent weeks as rising yields raised concerns over their high
valuations.
Further bolstering sentiment on Thursday, data showed retail
sales rebounded sharply in March as Americans received
additional pandemic relief checks from the government, while
jobless claims fell more than expected to 576,000 last week.
The newly-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase COIN.O
added 8%, a day after going public in a high-profile debut on
the Nasdaq that briefly valued it at more than $100 billion.
At 8:46 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 167 points, or
0.5%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were up 25.5 points, or 0.62%, and
Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were up 144.25 points, or 1.05%.
Dell Technologies Inc DELL.N jumped 7.7%, as brokerages
Evercore and Credit Suisse raised price targets, after the
company said it would spin off its 81% stake in cloud computing
software maker VMware VMW.N , creating two standalone public
companies.