US STOCKS-Wall St closes with weekly gains, S&P 500, Dow hit record highs

(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window.)
* S&P 500, Dow post fourth straight week of gains
* Morgan Stanley wraps up earnings from big banks
* Strong U.S. data boosts economic recovery hopes

(Updates to market close)
By David French and Shivani Kumaresan
April 16 (Reuters) - The three main Wall Street indexes
ended Friday higher for the day and week, with the S&P 500
.SPX and the Dow .DJI breaking closing records, as investors
took strong economic data and bank earnings as signs of momentum
in the U.S. pandemic rebound.
Most of the 11 S&P sub-sectors rose on Friday. The energy
.SPNY index was an exception, weighed by lower oil prices.
The S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average
recorded their fourth straight week of gains, while the
technology-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC finished less than one percent
below its own all-time closing high achieved on Feb. 12.
For the S&P 500, it was the benchmark's third record closing
high this week, and the Dow has surpassed its best finish on two
consecutive days.
Investor confidence on the road ahead seems steady, with the
volatility index .VIX , Wall Street's fear gauge, falling on
Friday and on course for its lowest close in 14 months.
"Everyone is looking at just how far we can run before we
start raising interest rates," said George Catrambone, head of
Americas trading at DWS Group.
"Until we see that significant inflation growth and the Fed
starts to talk about raising interest rates, I think it's going
to be goldilocks, and any disruptions in the market will be
opportunities to clean up your risk book."
Further buoyant bank earnings came on Friday from Morgan
Stanley MS.N , which reported a 150% jump in quarterly profit,
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 as it also
disclosed an almost $1 billion loss from the collapse of private
fund Archegos. Shares of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Wells
Fargo & Co WFC.N rose, while the S&P financials index .SPSY
was up after hitting a record high in the session.
"When this is all put in context, and compared with other
sectors including technology, we're going to see the financials'
results look very powerful," said Diane Jaffee, senior portfolio
manager at TCW.
"Given what we know about the Fed's loosening on caps for
dividend increases and buybacks after the next CCAR results in
June, I think we'll have a very strong half-year - at least -
for financials."
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
159.31 points, or 0.47%, to 34,195.3, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
14.39 points, or 0.35%, to 4,184.81 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 11.07 points, or 0.08%, to 14,049.84.
The Federal Reserve's pledge to keep interest rates low
despite higher inflation has also revived demand for richly
valued technology stocks, although bond yields edged higher
again on Friday after hitting multi-week lows a day earlier.
US/
Tech behemoth Apple Inc AAPL.O slipped. It has been among
the stocks which led Wall Street's recovery last year from the
coronavirus-fueled crash.
Bitcoin-related stocks including Riot Blockchain RIOT.O
and Marathon Digital MARA.O slumped after Turkey banned the
use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to purchase goods and
services.