Friday Afternoon Cheat Sheet: 3 Stories That Moved Markets

The U.S. equity markets closed on a mixed note on Tuesday. On average, earnings continued to top estimates, but notably Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), which reported before the markets opened, closed the day off about 2.7 percent after reporting a decrease in sales volume.

At the close: DJIA: +0.34%, S&P 500: +0.16%, NASDAQ: -0.17%.

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

1) Retail sales for the first week of February were lower than usual for this time of year because of the blizzard that slammed the Northeast at the end of the week. The ICSC-Goldman and Redbook retail sales reports both showed a drop in year-over-year sales growth for the week ended February 19, and both cited the storm as the cause. ICSC reported a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase for the period, which compares to 2.6 percent gain in the previous year.

Week-over-week sales also took a hit, falling 2.5 percent for the first week of the month… (Read more.)