Friday Trading Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

The U.S. equity markets braved international economic headwinds on Friday and struck out for positive territory. Faced with turmoil in the euro currency bloc, but backed by strong manufacturing performance at home, all three major indexes posted strong gains and ended the week on a positive note.

At the close: DJIA: +0.63%, S&P 500: +0.72%, NASDAQ: +0.70%.

Here are three stories that moved markets on Friday afternoon:

1) “They have completely abandoned us on the edge of an abyss,” noted one Cypriot protest Friday at a rally outside the island nation’s parliament. The demonstration comes as the clock ticks down to a Monday deadline set by the European Central Bank for Cyprus’s legislators to strike a deal before it stops funding the country’s banks, a move that could potentially push Cyprus off the euro and prompt a financial sector collapse.

With pressure mounting from the ECB, members of the Cypriot Parliament prepared to vote Friday on yet another international bailout deal. The plan sent to parliament, devised by Anastasiades, would nationalize pension funds from state-run companies and conduct an emergency bond sale to raise the 5.8 billion euros required to unlock the bailout funds… (Read more.)