us stocks pared early losses on friday with the dow turning mildly positive as investors scrutinized more economic data and federal reserve commentary following thursdays promising inflation report as well as a flurry of bigbank earnings us stocks are on track to cement a second straight weekly gain on friday after a threeday advance main indexes have gotten off to a strong start this year led by the nasdaq which has risen more than 3 so far this week need to know tesla is a softlanding stock says goldman sachs here are its picks for a gentle slide as well as a rough landing corporate news was the markets main focus on friday as banks and other companies rolled out their results for the quarter ended in december typically the release of megabank earnings marks the unofficial start of the us earnings season and market analysts will be watching closely this quarter for indications of how americas largest companies are bracing for an expected economic downturn driven by higher interest rates in the spotlight thursday were shares of jpmorgan chase jpm wells fargo  co wfc bank of america bac and citigroup c shares of the big banks were mixed in midmorning trade as they erased the steep declines that followed the publication of their results shares initially sunk as investors focused on weak income from capital markets and investment banking segments instead of the banks overall earnings analysts said they were also perturbed by largerthanexpected loanloss reserves set aside to gird against a spike in defaults theyve had some difficult hurdles with loanloss reserves and no capital markets activity said art hogan chief market strategist at b riley wealth while discussing the big banks earnings its intuitive to see the kind of action were seeing this morning hogan and other analysts said that stocks could be vulnerable to a pullback after such a strong start to the year katie stockton a technical strategist at fairlead strategies said the cboe volatility index  otherwise known as the vix or the wall street fear gauge was showing signs of complacency after the strong rally in stocks earlier in the week the index stood at 193 early monday not far from its august lows the preceding threeday rally instilled enough confidence to bring the vix back to levels associated with augusts peak this indicates some complacency and because it occurs in absence of a breakout it creates a fragile backdrop for equities stockton said in a note to clients and reporters see jpmorgan wells fargo bank of america and citi beat earnings expectations but worries about headwinds remain despite thursdays cpi report showing inflation easing further in december futures traders have cemented expectations for more federal reserve interest rate hikes in february and march more us economic data was on the way friday one day after the inflation report showed the first monthly decline in consumer prices in more than two years stocks saw a choppy day of trading on the back of that which to some was a sign investors had their hopes even higher for that ease in prices read why the stock market isnt impressed with the first monthly decline in consumer prices in more than 2 years us import prices rose in december as the dollar weakened breaking a streak of monthly declines the university of michigan consumer sentiment index for january climbed to 646 its highest level in nine months as expectations for the rate of inflation one year out moderated stocks pushed higher thursday after st louis federal reserve bank president james bullard said the probability of a soft landing for the economy has increased due to encouraging inflation data he was followed by philadelphia fed president patrick harker who said quarterpoint moves would likely be appropriate going forward speaking again on friday harker said a soft landing for the economy was still possible he also said he favors getting benchmark rates above 5 across other markets the us dollar was down 03 against the japanese yen as the bank of japan bought more bonds after the benchmark 10year japanese government bonds breached the 05 cap it set just under a month ago the yield on the 10year us treasury note was up 1 basis point to 3467