Friday Afternoon Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

The markets pulled through economic turbulence to close up across the board for the week. Strong international trade data released on Friday helped pull the major U.S. indices to a higher close, even after Forex concerns brewed up some bad mojo earlier in the week.

At the close: DJIA: +0.35%, S&P 500: +0.57%, NASDAQ: +0.91%.

Here are three stories that helped move the markets on Friday:

1) The advance estimate that showed gross domestic product contracting 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter could be revised into growth territory, if strong international trade data has anything to do with it (and it does). The U.S. trade deficit shrank far more than expected in December, narrowing to just -$38.5 billion. This compares to a consensus estimate of -$46.0 billion and November’s reading of $48.6 billion.

Leading the charge was increases in industrial and civilian aircraft exports. U.S. services exports widened their surplus to $17.7 billion for the month… (Read more.)