Reuters US STOCKS-Wall St sets 5th weekly gain on banks, Boeing off late

* Banks rise after Wells Fargo preliminary results

* Retailers gain after sales fall less than expected

* Boeing falls after the bell on profit warning

* Dow up 3.1 pct, S&P up 3.8 pct, Nasdaq up 3.9 pct

* For up-to-the-minute market news click [STXNEWS/US] (Adds Boeing's slide after the bell, weekly percentage gains in the major U.S. stock indexes and volume figures)

By Leah Schnurr

NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Thursday after Wells Fargo said it expects to report a record quarterly profit, fueling a month-long rally prompted by hopes that deterioration in the financial sector was abating.

Wells Fargo (WFC.N) shares shot up 31.7 percent to $19.61 after the bank saw strength in its mortgage banking business as refinancings hit a six-year high. That helped the bank forecast a profit of $3 billion for the first quarter, topping analysts' expectations. For more, see [ID:nN09260398]

The state of the banks has been a key factor behind the stock market's sentiment and is at the heart of the global economic crisis. The current rally to two-month highs first took off in early March when several major banks said they had made money at the beginning of the year.

"This is another step in that (banks) are about to report earnings that are not a disaster and are creeping into the black," said Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Advisors in Boston.

"It's another piece of gathering evidence that banks can very likely weather and probably pass the worst operating results that they've seen."

In the latest sign that the mood of consumers is on the mend, many U.S. retailers posted smaller-than-expected sales declines for last month, signaling shoppers may be loosening their grip on their wallets. [ID:nN09540393].

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 246.27 points, or 3.14 percent, to 8,083.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX gained 31.40 points, or 3.81 percent, to 856.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC climbed 61.88 points, or 3.89 percent, to 1,652.54. more...