The Census Bureau released its Advanced Monthly Sales for Retail Trade and Food Services report today, and it contained some good news. The report shows a .4 percent increase in sales of retail and food services from last month and a 3.6 percent increase year-over-year. Since August is a heavy month for school supply shopping and has many regional tax-free weeks, this increase was expected, but still impressive. The overall increase in sales for the period of June through August was 4.7 percent year-over-year. You can access the full report here.
Best BUY Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) released their second quarter 2010 financial data today that showed a 61 percent increase in net earnings over the earnings of the same period of 2009. It also revealed a 62 percent increase in earnings per share year-over-year. You can access the full report here.
Early in the day, U.S. markets were all positively affected by the retail gains, but by late in the afternoon the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell, losing 17.56 points to close at 10,526.57. The S&P also dropped .81 points to 1,121.09. The Nasdaq rose 4.06 points to 2,289.77.
European markets were up on Tuesday while Asian markets were mixed with Japan’s Nikkei falling .24 percent.
Stocks in the news: Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK), Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO).
