us stocks climbed on thursday as traders parsed another batch of inflation data which suggested the federal reserve may be near the end of its interest rate hikes and as the first reports from whats expected to be a gloomy first quarter earnings season arrived with several marquee releases due on friday us stocks fizzled out wednesday after early gains the dow jones industrial average fell 38 points or 011 to 33647 while the nasdaq dropped more than 100 points or almost 09 us inflation data released this week showed that price pressures are slowly ebbing even if socalled core inflation has proved more obstinate however minutes from the federal reserves march meeting have contributed to creeping recession fears on thursday data showed us wholesale prices sank 05 in march the biggest decline in almost three years on a yeartoyear basis the headline ppi index fell to 36 in march from 45 in february the ppi index is seen as a leading indicator for consumer prices one day earlier the cpi index a closelywatched inflation gauge showed prices rose a scant 01 in march while the yearoveryear headline inflation rate declined to 50 the core inflation rate which strips out volatile food and energy costs moved up to 56 over the past 12 months from 55 in february weekly data on the number of americans applying for unemployment benefits showed an increase last week of 11000 to 239000 indicating a small but steady increase in layoffs in a generally strong us labor market investors are now turning their attention to corporate earnings as the informal start to the firstquarter reporting season arrived thursday now that weve got through the economic data side of things the focus is on earnings said jake jolly head of investment analysis at bny mellon us stocks have been trading in a notably tight range over the past two weeks with the sp 500 trading closely around the 4100 level according to factset data the rolling 7day average for absolute percentage moves for the sp 500 fell below 03 to the lowest level since nov 2021 on wednesday according to dow jones market data looking ahead investors will receive critical input from some of the biggest us banks about how the collapse of silicon valley bank and two other us lenders might impact their business and the availability of credit in the economy anything that offers a forward look at credit conditions will be key jolly added investors digested reports from delta air lines dal and fastenal fast thursday now a wave of earnings from some of the largest banks in the us including jpmorgan chase jpm citigroup c and wells fargo wfc are due on friday factset estimates have earnings per share for sp 500 companies declining 68 during the first quarter if this comes to pass it would mark a second straight quarter of contraction in other news the euro rose to its strongest level against the us dollar in a year on thursday the shared currency was up 06 at 111 in recent trade this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal