us stocks on friday retreated from their highest levels since midfebruary as investors digested strong big bank earnings weak retail sales and hawkish comments from a federal reserve official the dow industrials rose 38319 points or 11 to finish at 3402969 on thursday while the sp 500 gained 5427 points or 13 to end at 414622 it marked the highest closing levels since feb 15 according to dow jones market data the nasdaq composite logged its highest close since april 3 major indexes are all positive for the week so far barring a sharp selloff on friday they are on track to log their fourth weekly advance in five weeks us stocks were trading lower friday as investors focused on retail sales data showing spending deteriorated again last month while federal reserve governor christopher waller said that the fed must continue hiking interest rates because inflation is still much too high because financial conditions have not significantly tightened the labor market continues to be strong and quite tight and inflation is far above target so monetary policy needs to be tightened further waller said during a speech in san antonio texas investors also digested commentary from chicago fed president austan goolsbee who said the us economy could soon slip into recession a sentiment that echoed staff comments in the minutes from the feds march meeting which were released on wednesday inflation data released earlier in the week showed a largerthanexpected slowdown in wholesale prices while socalled core consumerprice inflation remained stubbornly high as it ticked higher to a rate of 56 yearoveryear marvin loh senior global strategist at state street said wallers comments were a departure from the more dovish tone evinced by other senior fed officials since the feds march policy meeting this is one of the more hawkish comments over the past week a lot of the fed speak has leaned toward one and done in terms of rate hikes loh said during a phone call with marketwatch meanwhile data showed sales at retailers a critical component of consumer spending dropped 1 in march declining for the fourth time in the past five months the decline was sharper than the 05 contraction that economists polled by the wall street journal had anticipated consumer spending hasnt fallen off a cliff but it has continued to weaken from the elevated levels seen in the aftermath of the covid19 pandemic economists said the cumulative effect of historically high inflation rising interest rates and reduced access to credit is already taking a toll on consumers ability and willingness to spend said lydia boussour senior economist at ey parthenon in emailed commentary and the full effect of recent bankingsector turmoil and the associated tightening in credit conditions has yet to be felt the first bank earnings reports since three us lenders including silicon valley bank failed last month offered some optimism though jpmorgan chase  co jpm shares jumped after the uss biggest bank reported earnings and revenue well above forecasts jpmorgan ceo jamie dimon said the us economy looked generally healthy but warned the coast was not completely clear however the storm clouds that we have been monitoring for the past year remain on the horizon and the banking industry turmoil adds to these risks he said need to knowbank earnings season is here this popular value fund just bought kroger and a regional lender wells fargo  co wfc and citigroup c also beat forecasts for profits and revenue pittsburgh lender pnc financial services group inc pncreported higher earnings and deposit driving a 36 gain for the stock blackrock inc blk  meanwhile reported a decline in profit as assets under management fell 5 although its shares traded modestly higher investors have been anxious to see how the banks would perform as analysts have been cutting earnings estimates for both large and regional banks in the wake of the crisis so far it seems the numbers are coming in pretty good said state streets loh however we have to wait for more smaller lenders to start reporting to get a better picture of how banks are doing in the wake of last months turmoil outside the banking sector shares of boeing coba tumbled after the jet maker warned late thursday that a manufacturing hangup could cause problems for production and delivery of a significant number of 737 max planes a popular consumersentiment survey showed respondents outlook has risen slightly to 635 in april rebounding from a fourmonth low however it did reflect slightly higher anxiety about inflation 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