Recasts first paragraph and headline, updates with analyst comment and background throughout

July 30 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo Investment Institute on Wednesday became the latest Wall Street research house to lift its year-end target for the S&P 500 index, citing tariff delays and strong corporate earnings.

The Wells Fargo bank WFC.N subsidiary sees the benchmark index .SPX ending 2025 between 6,300 and 6,500, up from a prior range of 5,900 to 6,100.

The target raise follows U.S. President Donald Trump delaying his reciprocal tariffs and signing deals with trade partners including EU and Japan.

Earlier this month, Trump also signed into law tax and spending cuts that would benefit corporate earnings.

"The dilution of tariff implementations and the new business tax provisions should improve earnings growth and investor sentiment," Wells Fargo said in a note.

Earlier this month, research firms Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Oppenheimer and RBC Capital Markets also raised their S&P 500 targets.

For the year, Wells Fargo increased its U.S. GDP growth forecast to 1.3% from 1.0% earlier.

The U.S. economy expanded at a brisk 3% annualized pace in the second quarter, buoyed primarily by a sharp retreat in imports and a tempered rise in consumer outlays.

Wells Fargo also lifted its earnings-per-share forecast for the S&P 500 index to $265 from $260. It raised its index target for 2026 to a range of 6900-7100 from 6400-6600.

The institute maintained its preference for U.S. large- and mid-cap equities over small caps and emerging markets, and reiterated its view that the U.S. dollar will remain resilient amid diverging global growth trajectories.

(Reporting by Rashika Singh; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

((Rashika.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))