Leaked Wal-Mart Emails: Retail Stock Goes Down After Email About ‘Total Disaster’ Sales Leaks

In a leaked email, a Wal-Mart executive claimed that February sales were a "total disaster" so far, prompting the company's shares to fall on Friday, dragging on the retail sector.

The email, written by Jerry Murray, Wal-Mart's vice president of finance and logistics, was obtained by Bloomberg News. It read:

"In case you haven't seen a sales report these days, February (month-to-date) sales are a total disaster. The worst start to a month I have seen in my (about) 7 years with the company."

He blamed the payroll tax increase from the beginning of this year for weak consumer spending, according to CNBC. In its response, issued to CNBC, Wal-Mart downplayed the report.

"As with any organization, we often see internal communications that are not entirely accurate, that lack the proper context, and represent individual opinions," Wal-Mart said in the response.

Some analysts are worried that the jump in payroll taxes could be problematic for Wal-Mart and other discount retailers that cater to customers with less disposable income

"You're looking at a very important company in a very important space but it doesn't always mean that as one company goes, so goes everyone else and so goes retail sales," Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, told CNBC. "Wal-Mart does bear watching for hints that there was a slowdown, but I would be hesitant to say the consumer is done. The consumer is very resilient."

As Wal-Mart shares dropped 2.2 percent Friday, other major retailers, like Macy's, Family Dollar, Dollar General and Target saw their shares fall more than one percent. The S&P consumer staples sector, trending higher for most of the session, turned lower following the report, but recovered by the day's end with a slight gain.

Wal-Mart is slated to report fourth-quarter earnings next Thursday -- and analysts expect earnings of $1.57 per share on revenue of $128.92 billion, Reuters reported.

"We'll have to see what Wal-Mart has to say next Thursday and we don't know the exact context of this email, but you could extrapolate that low-end consumers are certainly being adversely affected by the payroll-tax increase and higher gasoline prices," Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets, told CNBC.