US STOCKS-S&P 500, Dow hit record highs on upbeat earnings, strong retail sales

* Bank of America Q1 profit more than doubles
* BlackRock edges higher as quarterly profit beats estimates
* PepsiCo up as it bets on higher soda sales
* Indexes up: Dow 0.65%, S&P 0.74%, Nasdaq 1.01%

(Updates prices to open)
By Shivani Kumaresan and Shreyashi Sanyal
April 15 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones indexes
notched record highs on Thursday as upbeat earnings reports from
several companies and a strong rebound in March retail sales
bolstered hopes of a broader economic rebound.
Coupled with rapid vaccinations and hopes of a return to
normal, the upbeat data provided another opportunity for
investors to pile into high-flying technology stocks that took a
beating recently.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O Facebook Inc
FB.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O rose between 1.1% and 2.0%,
taking the S&P technology sector .SPLRCT to the top of pack in
early trading.
Both Bank of America BAC.N and Citigroup offered
optimistic views on an economic rebound, but shares of America's
second-biggest lender fell 4% after it posted a profit that just
about topped estimates. Citi's shares were 0.3% higher.
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 2.3% 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.
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 2.4%, a day after going public in a high-profile debut on
the Nasdaq that briefly valued it at more than $100 billion.
At 09:57 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 219.43 points, or 0.65%, at 33,950.32, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 30.34 points, or 0.74%, at 4,155.00 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 139.87 points, or 1.01%, at 13,997.71.
Dell Technologies Inc DELL.N jumped 5.5%, 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. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.62-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.46-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 30 new 52-week highs and no new lows,
while the Nasdaq recorded 53 new highs and 8 new lows.