us stocks were mixed friday afternoon with the sp 500 turning lower as investors weighed bank earnings and a university of michigan survey of consumer sentiment but all three major benchmarks were on track for weekly gains for the week the dow was on track to rise 23 while the sp 500 was on pace to gain 25 and the nasdaq was heading for a 35 increase according to factset data at last check us stocks were trading mixed after wall street banks reported earnings results for the second quarter and a fresh sign that consumers have become more upbeat the university of michigans survey of consumer sentiment released friday showed americans confidence in the economy boomed last month seeus consumer sentiment soars in july to highest level since september 2021 at the end of the day if people have jobs and feel secure in their jobs theyre going to spend money said yungyu ma chief investment officer at bmo wealth management in a phone interview friday theres only so much of a pullback that can happen if the job market doesnt crack meanwhile the stock market is still benefiting from the residual effects from wednesdays consumerpriceindex report for june said ma as it indicated that inflation is coming down pretty broadly still the university of michigans gauge of consumer inflation expectations ticked higher to 34 in july up from 33 in the prior month which caught the markets attention while the confidence number moved up markedly i think that the inflation expectations piece of the puzzle didnt move down as much as we thought it would said art hogan chief market strategist at briley wealth some of the largest us banks along with assetmanagement giant blackrock inc blk released on friday their results for the quarter ended in june adding to other optimistic reports from major us companies released earlier this week jpmorgan chase  cojpm wells fargo  cowfc and citigroup inc c all reported earnings and revenue that beat forecasts investors have been eager to hear what those financial giants had to say after a quarter marked by bank failures and interestrate hikes by the federal reserve jpmorgan is a big bellweather said ma seeing bank profits hold up is an important sign this earnings season investors also cheered numbers from dow component unitedhealth group inc unh which emerged as the bestperformer on the dow as it roared higher weve had a week where most of our news flow and inputs have come in better than expected whether you look at cpi ppi or the first earnings from delta and pepsi hogan said during a phone interview with marketwatch the sp 500 on thursday broke above the 4500 level for the first time since april 2022 and major us stock benchmarks are heading for weekly gains investors on friday also digested a report on import prices which showed that prices fell again in june dropping 02 import prices have fallen every month of 2023 except for april  another sign that price pressures in the us have abated seeus import prices fall in june fifth drop in past six months but investors were also considering remarks from federal reserve board gov christopher waller who said thursday he was not swayed by junes benign consumer inflation data and that he wants the central bank to go ahead with two more 25basispoint rate hikes this year 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