US STOCKS-Dow breaks 34k, S&P hits fresh record high on tech rally

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* Fall in Treasury yields buoys mega-cap tech stocks
* BlackRock rises as quarterly profit beats estimates
* U.S. retail sales jump, jobless claims fall

(Adds comments, updates to market close)
By Shivani Kumaresan, Shreyashi Sanyal and David French
April 15 (Reuters) - The Dow industrials .DJI closed above
34,000 for the first time on Thursday as the blue-chip benchmark
and S&P 500 .SPX posted fresh record highs on a tech stock
rally fueled by falling bond yields and strong March U.S. retail
sales data.
It was the second time this week the S&P 500 has registered
a new best close, and the Dow surpassed its previous closing
peak on April 9.
Joining at a record high was the S&P information technology
.SPLRCT sector. Both it and the communication services
.SPLRCL index were buoyed by big tech names, including Apple
Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Facebook Inc FB.O .
"Even though valuations are pretty high, you've got a lot of
confidence the big tech giants are going to continue to be able
to deliver enough cash flow to justify those valuations," said
Tim Murray, a T. Rowe Price Associates capital markets
strategist.
Helping draw in cash for such names is the fact Treasury
yields, after spiking upwards at the end of March, have been in
retreat as investors increasingly accept the Federal Reserve's
assurances on maintaining an accommodative monetary policy
despite higher inflation.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR slipped
below 1.6% for the first time since March 25. US/
Top U.S. banks kicked off the 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.
Bank of America BAC.N and Citigroup Inc C.N also offered
optimistic views on an economic recovery in their earnings
reports on Thursday, but shares of both declined. "Uncharacteristically, expectations for earnings have
improved for the quarter and what tends to move markets is when
the numbers are far better than expected," said Randy Frederick,
vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
305.16 points, or 0.9%, to 34,036.05, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
45.79 points, or 1.11%, to 4,170.45 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 180.92 points, or 1.31%, to 14,038.76.
BlackRock Inc BLK.N , the world's largest asset manager,
advanced after reporting a 16% jump in first-quarter profit,
while PepsiCo Inc PEP.O edged higher after forecasting a
pickup in organic revenue growth in the second quarter.
Further bolstering sentiment, data showed retail sales
jumped 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 to a one-year low.
"For U.S. equities, it's the best of both worlds, as we have
the 10-year down but we have good economic data. That's exactly
what you'd want to see," said T Rowe's Murray.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN.O bounced
around before closing lower, a day after going public in a
high-profile debut on the Nasdaq that briefly valued it at more
than $100 billion. AppLovin Corp APP.O slumped on its first day of trading
after its initial public offering valued the mobile app and
gaming company at $28.6 billion. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
6-month chart of S&P tech sector and 10-yr U.S. Treasury https://tmsnrt.rs/3slrQrC
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