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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 and the Dow 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 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 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, 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, which reported a 150% jump in quarterly profit, joining JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America 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 rose, while the S&P financials index 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 rose 159.31 points, or 0.47%, to 34,195.3, the S&P 500 gained 14.39 points, or 0.35%, to 4,184.81 and the Nasdaq Composite 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.

Tech behemoth Apple Inc 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 and Marathon Digital slumped after Turkey banned the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to purchase goods and services. (Reporting by Shivani Kumaresan in Bengaluru and David French in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Anil D'Silva and Richard Chang)