Markets were heading higher on Friday after the job market unexpectedly rose last month. The Labor Department announced that there was an addition of 204,000 new jobs in October, however the unemployment rate still crept up to 7.3% from September?s 7.2%. The new job data blew past the 125,000 job increase that economist were expecting. They also expected the unemployment rate to increase, but only by a tenth of a percentage point. The announcement this morning also showed there was an additional 60,000 jobs added in September than originally thought. The higher than expected data was further evidence that the 16-day partial government shutdown did not have a strong affect on the job market. Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services, said, ?Clearly what transpired was businesses viewed the shutdown as a temporary phenomenon and the economy was still growing and would continue to grow going forward.?

In a separate report released on Friday morning, the Commerce Department announced that U.S. consumer spending was up slightly. The also reported that household savings were on the rise. Spending was up 0.2% in September after a 0.3% climb in August. This was on point with the 0.2% increase that economists were expecting. There was a decrease of 1.3% in consumers purchasing of long-lasting manufactured goods. In the same report it showed that there was an increase of 0.5% in American?s income. This was the highest increase since February. The rise in September was partially attributed to the end of the government furloughs. Household savings were up to 4.9% of Americans after-tax income. This was up from 4.7% in August.

Shares of McDonald?s (MCD) were down slightly after the company missed sales expectations for October. The company announced that global sales at stores open at least a year were up 0.5%, however this was below the 0.6% analysts were expecting. Comparable store sales ales were up 0.2% in the U.S. This also fell short of the 0.7% analysts had expected. Sales took a 2.8% dive in their Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions.

That?s all for the day. Have a great weekend, loyal readers!
All the best,
Jack Aubrey, Oakshire Financial