By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P and Dow eked out slight gains on Friday, erasing earlier losses after comments from U.S. President Donald Trump provided hope that previously announced tariffs expected to begin in early April may not be as burdensome as feared.

Trump said there will be flexibility on tariffs and that his top trade chief plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart next week. The president also reiterated his plan to use duties as a way to narrow the U.S. trade deficit with China.

Markets have been under pressure in recent weeks as changing announcements about the timing and size of tariffs have clouded the outlook for corporate profits as well as the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path.

Stocks have shown some signs of bottoming this week, however, with the S&P climbing more than 1% on Wednesday in the wake of the Fed's latest policy announcement. The central bank kept rates unchanged and signaled two cuts were likely this year.

Even so, Michael Arone, chief investment strategist for the U.S. SPDR Business at State Street Global Advisors in Boston, said it was concerning that investors' attempts to rally the stock market had largely failed.

"The reasons are the continued uncertainty around trade policy from the Trump administration, continued concerns about a U.S. economic growth scare and ultimately uncertainty about what the path of monetary policy looks like," Arone said.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee said the central bank needs more time to "sort through" how Trump's policies play out in the economy, while New York Fed President John Williams echoed Goolsbee's comments and said there was no rush to change monetary policy right now.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32.03 points, or 0.08%, to 41,985.35, the S&P 500 gained 4.67 points, or 0.08%, to 5,667.56 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 92.43 points, or 0.52%, to 17,784.05.

The S&P was down as much as 1.06% earlier in the day.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, the Nasdaq rose 0.17%, and the Dow climbed 1.2%. It was the largest weekly gain for the Dow in two months, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 managed to barely snap four-week streaks of declines.

With earnings season set to begin next month, multiple companies have been reducing their forecasts. FedEx slumped 6.45% after the package delivery company cut its full-year profit and revenue forecasts, citing continued weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy.

Peer UPS declined 1.61%. Delivery firms are often seen as a bellwether for the global economy given their reach into a wide swath of different industries.