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* JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup rise on Q3 profit beat

* S&P 500, Dow eye weekly gains, U.S. crude prices climb

* U Mich's preliminary consumer sentiment index at 63 vs 67.2 est

* Indexes: Dow up 0.05%, S&P down 0.56%, Nasdaq down 1.24%

Oct 13 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq fell on Friday as weak consumer sentiment data and the Middle East conflict soured investors on riskier bets, overshadowing upbeat quarterly earnings from some of the largest U.S. banks.

Wall Street's three major indexes opened higher but lost ground after a preliminary reading on U.S. consumer sentiment showed a sharp fall in October.

Investors were also monitoring Middle East news for any signs of escalation beyond Israel and Hamas.

On Friday Israel said it carried out raids inside the Gaza Strip, its first announcement of a shift to ground operations aimed at Hamas fighters after their deadly rampage in Israel. The United Nations said Israel's call for Gaza civilians to leave was impossible "without devastating humanitarian consequences."

U.S. Treasury prices rose as investors looked for safety while the price of U.S. crude oil rose more than 5%.

"This signals more of a risk off-sentiment," said Lauren Goodwin, economist and portfolio strategist at New York Life Investments, citing the moves in Treasuries, equities and oil. She cited the deteriorating consumer sentiment and worries about the global economy as well as geopolitical concerns.

At this stage of the economic cycle when data has been good but is "expected to deteriorate over the next several months," Goodwin said, "shifts in leadership are incredibly common and no one market narrative tends to last for more than a couple of days at a time."

Unless there is a major escalation in the Middle East war the strategist said he did not expect Friday's mood to be "indicative of the beginning of a troubled market."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15.39 points, or 0.05%, to 33,646.53, the S&P 500 lost 24.36 points, or 0.56%, to 4,325.25 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 168.21 points, or 1.24%, to 13,406.01.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were on track for weekly gains.

Among the S&P's 11 major industry sectors energy was leading gains, up 2.7% in line with oil prices. Defensive sectors such as utilities were also top gainers.

Other safe-haven assets such as gold rallied.

Shares in JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup rose after their quarterly profits trounced analysts' estimates with help from higher interest rates.

But even the S&P 500 Banks index pared gains as the session wore on, last up 0.8% after rising as much as 3.4% to a three-week high.

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker said he believes the central bank is likely done with its rate-hiking cycle as price pressures have eased.

Among individual stocks, asset manager BlackRock dipped 1.6% after posting a sharp drop in third-quarter net inflows.

UnitedHealth advanced 2.5% after beating third-quarter profit estimates.

Dollar General added 8% after the discount store retailer brought back former CEO Todd Vasos to replace Chief Executive Jeff Owen.

Boeing shed 3% after the planemaker and Spirit AeroSystems expanded the scope of their ongoing inspections of a production defect affecting 737 Max 8 aircraft. Spirit's shares were down less than 1%.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.60-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.69-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and 19 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 27 new highs and 302 new lows. (Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Shashwat Chauhan and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Anil D'Silva, Shinjini Ganguli and Richard Chang)