EQUITY MARKETS

US

S&P500 +0.26%(2,587.84); NASDAQ +0.94% (6,764.44); DJIA +0.45% (23,539.19)

This week’s reports:

October’s Unemployment Rate fell to 4.1% from September’s 4.2% as Non-Farm Payrolls rose 261K from September’s +18K. Labor Force Participation fell to 62.7% from September’s 63.1%.
October’s Average Weekly Hours were unchanged from September’s 34.4. Average Hourly Earnings were flat from September’s +0.5%.
September’s Personal Income rose 0.4% from August’s +0.2%. Personal Spending surged +1% from August’s +0.1%.
Q3 2017 Non-farm Productivity (prelim.) rose 3.0% from Q2’s +1.5%. Unit Labor Costs (prelim.) rose 0.5% from Q2’s +0.3%.
October’s Chicago PMI rose to 66.2 from September’s 65.2.
October’s Markit Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.6 from September’s 54.5. Services PMI fell to 55.3 from September’s 55.9. Composite PMI fell to 55.2 from September’s 55.7.
October’s ISM Manufacturing PMI fell to 58.7 from September’s 60.8. ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI rose to 60.1 from September’s 59.8.
September’s Factory Orders rose 1.4% from August’s +1.2%.
Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending October 27^th fell by 5K to 229K. Continuing Jobless Claims for the week ending October 20^th fell by 5K to 1,884K.

US stocks finished higher for an eighth week, capping their longest string of weekly gains since 2013 as Apple Inc. results and strong services sector data added to optimism in the economy. The technology sector accounted for more than 75% of the S&P 500 Index’s return in October.