Tuesday brought CB Consumer Confidence figures. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had increased in August, improved moderately in September. The Index now stands at 103.0 (1985=100), up from 101.3 in August. Analysts were anticipating decline to 96.3. The Present Situation Index increased from 115.8 last month to 121.1 in September, while the Expectations Index edged down to 91.0 from 91.6 in August. 

Wednesday was marked by ADP job figures. Private sector employment increased by 200,000 jobs from August to September. Analysts were anticipating increase by 192,000 jobs. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “The U.S. job machine continues to produce jobs at a strong and consistent pace. Despite job losses in the energy and manufacturing industries, the economy is creating close to 200,000 jobs per month. At this pace full employment is fast approaching.”

Thursday brought Unemployment Claims and Manufacturing PMI figures. In the week ending September 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 277,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 267,000. Analysts were forecasting incline to 273,000. The 4-week moving average was 270,750, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 271,750.

The September PMI registered 50.2 percent, a decrease of 0.9 percentage point from the August reading of 51.1 percent. The New Orders Index registered 50.1 percent, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the reading of 51.7 percent in August. The Production Index registered 51.8 percent, 1.8 percentage points below the August reading of 53.6 percent. The Employment Index registered 50.5 percent, 0.7 percentage point below the August reading of 51.2 percent. Backlog of Orders registered 41.5 percent, a decrease of 5 percentage points from the August reading of 46.5 percent.

Focus of the Friday's session was on NFP figures.Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in September. Analysts were anticipating increase by 201,000. Thus far in 2015, job growth has averaged 198,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 260,000 in 2014. In September, job gains occurred in health care and information, while employment in mining continued to decline. In September, the unemployment rate held at 5.1%, and the number of unemployed persons (7.9 million) changed little. This was in line market predictions. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.3 million, respectively.

This week markets will be looking at:

ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI (Monday 16:00)

Trade Balance (Tuesday 14:30)

Unemployment Claims (Thursday 14:30)

FOMC Meeting Minutes (Thursday 20:00)