Earnings season is here, and investors late this week got an opening salvo of financial results from several high-profile companies. The early news has overall been fairly good, and that sent all three major market benchmarks to modest gains just after midday on Friday.

Helping to pave the way ahead for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the banking industry, with reports from major financial institutions helping to boost confidence in the sector. However, not every bank managed to ride the coattails of the winners in the industry.

In particular, Citigroup (NYSE: C) and State Street (NYSE: STT) suffered fairly sizable declines that suggested at least some pockets of the banking sector haven't yet managed to find their way forward in a challenging interest rate environment.

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Source Fool.com