CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for a little more 'Business Buzz.' It was a winter wonderland in much of the northeast this past weekend, but retailers are feeling the big chill. Carrie Lee is back. She has the story live from the Nasdaq market site. Good morning -- Carrie.</s>CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, bottom line, people were doing other things than schlepping through that snow and going shopping. Retail sales sank 3.3 percent in the second week of this holiday shopping season, and that's after two days of snowstorms in the northeast. This compares with the sales gain of 8.6 percent in the year ago week. This according to ShopperTrak. Now despite the decline, industry analysts say there's probably still time for the nation's merchants to recoup their lost sales and post strong results for the season. Overall, analysts are looking for about 4 percent growth this year, up from 2.2 percent last year. So they do have some time to catch up, Carol. And catch up they will have to do, especially when we see snowstorms like we just have.</s>COSTELLO: Quick check of the futures.</s>LEE: Things look a bit bullish for stocks today. That is what it is looking like right now. We did see a pretty nice late day rally yesterday. Of course the Dow gaining just over 100 points, a gain of 1 percent. The Nasdaq, the S&P; 500 ending in the plus column as well. Today, though, the big economic story is the Federal Reserve. A meeting once again, the FOMC, to decide on whether or not to hold interest rates steady. That comes at about 2:00 p.m. Eastern. That's really the big story of the day -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: And we'll be there. Thank you. Carrie Lee live from the Nasdaq market site. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Blizzard Effect: Retail Sales Fell 3.3 Percent Last Week