The week began with positive results, with the Energy sector leading the way up. The rally pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average back into positive territory for 2015 for the first time since July. The rally in Energy continued on Tuesday, bolstered by rising crude costs. Additionally, monthly auto sales increased. The markets did a turnabout mid-week on a variety of economic news. Services industry activity ticked up in October, with the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index rising from 56.9 to 59.1. The results exceeded consensus expectations. On another note, the U.S. trade gap contracted to $40.8 billion in September, from a revised $48 billion in August. Thursday’s trading session closed slightly lower in the wake of mixed earnings reports. Stronger-than-expected jobs numbers led to mixed moves on Friday. The Dow and NASDAQ tacked on some points while the S&P 500 traded fractionally into the red. October employment data exceeded expectations, with the U.S. economy adding 271,000 jobs last month versus expectations of 180,000. The unemployment rate decreased to 5%. Additionally, August’s numbers were upwardly revised by 17,000, while September’s results were revised down by 5,000.
